Release Day: 10001 Dark Nights Bundle Seven

 

We are absolutely thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Seven! 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Seven is brought to you by 1001 Dark Nights. The Bundle contains 6 novellas from New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Shayla Black, Laura Kaye, Lara Adrian, Heather Graham, Skye Jordan, and CD Reiss! This is one hot bundle. Grab your copy today!

 

About 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Seven:

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors Shayla Black, Laura Kaye, Lara Adrian, Heather Graham, Skye Jordan, and CD Reiss. Six Dark Tales. Six Sensual Stories. Six Page Turners.

Magic. That's what happens everytime I read a 1001 Dark Nights Bundle and this time didn't disappoint.

From Paranormal to Contemporary Romance, in this bundle each story takes me to a new universe where I can live and experience wonderful escenarios and it's a honor to spread the word about this book.

With authors like Shayla Black, Laura Kaye, Lara Adrian, Heather Graham, Skye Jordan, and CD Reiss I guarantee you that you will laugh, cry and feel many things. I've always found interesting the way this whole idea about the 1001 Dark Nights started so every chapter and every books it truly feels like another personal world to experience.

Do not hesitate to join these worlds and discover incredible stories from your favorite authors!

ABOUT THE BOOKS

Pure Wicked by Shayla Black: During his decade as an international pop star, Jesse McCall has lived every day in the fast lane. When tragedy strikes, he sheds his identity and walks away, searching for peace. Instead, he finds Bristol Reese, a no-nonsense beauty scraping to keep her business. He’s intent on seducing her, but she’s not interested in a player. How will he convince her that he’s a changed man who wants nothing more than to make her his forever?

***

Hard As Steel by Laura Kaye: After identifying her employer's dangerous enemies, Jessica Jakes takes refuge at the compound of the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club. Fellow Hard Ink tattooist and Raven leader Ike Young promises to keep Jess safe for as long as it takes, which would be perfect if his close, personal, round-the-clock protection didn't make it so hard to hide just how much she wants him--and always has.

***

Stroke of Midnight by Lara Adrian: Born to a noble Breed lineage steeped in exotic ritual and familial duty, vampire warrior Jehan walked away from the luxurious trappings of his upbringing in Morocco to join the Order’s command center in Rome. But when a generations-old obligation calls Jehan home, the reluctant desert prince finds himself thrust into an unwanted handfasting with Seraphina, an unwilling beauty who’s as determined as he is to resist the antiquated pact between their families.

***

All Hallows Eve by Heather Graham: Salem was a place near and dear to Jenna Duffy and Samuel Hall -- it was where they'd met on a strange and sinister case. They never dreamed that they'd be called back. That history could repeat itself in a most macabre and terrifying fashion. But, then again, it was Salem at Halloween. Seasoned Krewe members, they still find themselves facing the unspeakable horrors in a desperate race to save each other-and perhaps even their very souls.

***

Rendezvous by Skye Jordan Keaton: Holt knows all about the badass throwdown—on the movie set and in the bedroom. As the only sixth-degree black belt stuntman for Renegades, he’s made a career of translating those fighting skills to the big screen. He’s sown his oats and is ready for hometown and apple pie. When he gets a second chance with the stunning personal assistant Brooke, he knows she’s exactly what he needs—and he’s ready to use all his best moves to keep her this time.

***

Secret Sins by CD Reiss: She’s too young. Too smart. Too rich. She’s a virgin and knee-deep in rock-and-roll gods. But life as she knows it is about to end. She’s going to get ripped apart, and the only thing she can do to keep it together is to keep her secrets. She has no idea how many secrets are being kept from her, and when they come to light, her life will blow up all over again. Can she take it? She’s Margie Drazen. She can take anything.

Every Dark Nights tale is breathtakingly sexy and magically romantic.

Experience the 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Seven Here…

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  About the 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Seven Authors-

About Shayla Black: Shayla Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels. For over fifteen years, she’s written contemporary, erotic, paranormal, and historical romances via traditional, independent, foreign, and audio publishers. Her books have sold well over a million copies and been published in a dozen languages. Raised an only child, Shayla occupied herself with lots of daydreaming, much to the chagrin of her teachers. In college, she found her love for reading and realized that she could have a career publishing the stories spinning in her imagination. Though she graduated with a degree in Marketing/Advertising and embarked on a stint in corporate America to pay the bills, her heart has always been with her characters. She’s thrilled that she’s been living her dream as a full-time author for the past seven years. Shayla currently lives in North Texas with her wonderfully supportive husband, her teenage daughter, and a very spoiled cat. In her “free” time, she enjoys reality TV, reading, and listening to an eclectic blend of music.

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About Laura Kaye: New York Times and USA Today bestseller Laura Kaye is the author of over twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Laura grew up amid family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses, cementing her life-long fascination with storytelling and the supernatural. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day. Laura is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Maryland Romance Writers, and she is past president of the RWA-Contemporary Romance Writers.

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About Lara Adrian: Lara Adrian is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Midnight Breed vampire romance series and seven award-winning, historical romances, previously released under the pen name Tina St. John. Lara’s Midnight Breed series is available in hardcover, mass market paperback and e-book through Random House, and in limited edition through Doubleday Book Club, Rhapsody Book Club, Book of The Month, and the Science Fiction Book Club. Unabridged audio editions are available through Tantor Media, Random House Audio, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Lara’s new releases regularly appear on all of the key bestseller lists including including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. There are more than 2 million copies of the Midnight Breed novels in print in the United States.

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About Heather Graham: New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Heather Graham has always been an avid reader, from classics to sci-fi, mystery, horror, thriller, romance, and all kinds of non-fiction. She’s fairly certain that her mom’s deliciously crazy family–arriving in the US a bit before her birth from Ireland–gave her the love of storytelling. She started out in theater and commercials, but once her children began to arrive, she stayed home and gave writing a try. She’s incredibly grateful to be doing what she’s doing for a living. Heather belongs to MWA, RWA, Sisters in Crime, HWA, and ITW, and has the recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, a Silver Bullet for charitable works, and this year, she will receive the Thriller Master title from ITW. She has over 200 novels in print, and has been published in 22 languages.

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About Skye Jordan: Skye’s New York Times bestselling novels are all about enjoying that little wild streak we all have, but probably don’t let out often enough. About those fantasies we usually don’t get the opportunity to indulge. About stretching limits, checking out the dark side, playing naughty and maybe even acting a little wicked. They’re about escape and fun and pleasure and romance. And, yes, even love, because Skye is ultimately a romantic at heart and a happily ever after kinda gal. Skye also writes romantic suspense as Joan Swan, weaving fast paced novels of passion, danger and suspense. Skye is a California native recently transplanted to the East Coast and living in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington DC with her husband of 25 years. She has two grown daughters in college in Colorado and Oregon. In her free time she’s always taking classes and attending seminars. She’s currently loving mosaics, forensic sculpting, pastry and cooking classes and knitting.

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About CD Reiss: C.D. Reiss is a USA Today bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up, she’s at the well, hauling buckets. Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere, but it did give her a big enough ego to write novels. Critics have dubbed the books “poetic,” “literary,” and “hauntingly atmospheric,” which is flattering enough for her to put it in a bio, but embarrassing enough for her not to tell her husband, or he might think she’s some sort of braggart who’s too good to chop a cord of wood. If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine.

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Release Day: Deny Me by Fiona Cole

Title: Deny Me

Author: Fiona Cole

Release Date: Nov 21, 2016

Add to Goodreads – http://bit.ly/2d79SIY

Synopsis
Jameson King.
My best friend’s brother and the person who could make an Olympic sport of ignoring my relentless teasing and taunting.
I was a live-in-the-moment girl flirting with a man who always looked to the future. He was traditional, carrying the weight of his whole family on his broad shoulders, and I had been taught to never fall in love, focusing on my career instead of a future with anyone.
He tried to deny me, tried to deny the passion simmering between us, bubbling under the surface of every game we played.
But all that changed during one week in Jamaica. Falling into bed with Jameson was easy, but falling in love was out of the question.

Buy Links

Amazon – http://amzn.to/2g3dKIp

I will keep this brief. I didn't like this book, there a few redeemable parts but still I can't find a way to like this book like other people, I guess I am in the minority.

First of all Evelyn, the heroine... oh how I dislike her. I couldn't connect with her. From the beginning I feel like she almost harassing Jameson, I guess the poor guy was thinking with his manhood so he followed her. 

The constant reminder that she can't fall in love, oh please, I was tired to hear that. WHY can you not let you feel something... Honey, it's not like love is an STD. Personally, I think I understood her personal reasons but since she couldn't even understand her mixed feeling, I couldn't either. Not that I wanted to.

Jameson was okay... I guess he just went with the flow. I mean who doesn't love a guy that can save a girl... to then realise they are in love? I guess it's just reversed roles this time.

The story... Look, I don't have a master in English and I don't know if I'll be wrong (if I am, I'd appreciate if you tell me where) but how can I explain the writing style? From the prologue I was expecting a different thing with the first chapter. They make out "passionately" and God help me, she just gave him a taste of what he was going to miss because she doesn't screw with the same guy twice? For God's sake, give the guy a brake.

Then whoa, they jump into a meeting between Lu (her best friend) Jameson and Lu's friend, and she starts talking how they always make pranks because they are this big family... she lives far away from her mom. She jumps in teasing really hard Jameson, just because she can and now that something happened they have the biggest chemistry, he just doesn't want to act on it. 

And then she jumps into how her best friend lost her parents, and jumps again into how her best friend suffered from a bad accident so that's why she guess Jameson now wants to settle down (and that's what keeps her out of Jameson radar, because she likes her but not to have a relationship with him).

I mean, she doesn't one that because her mom teached her to be independent... and she keeps jumping on moments, and I feel like it's a big effort to make me know her better and her group of friends and she keeps jumping. So I got tired and I gave up.

It felt rushed, and I feel like the author didn't give me time to adjust her pace.

Overall is a nice book I wouldn't want to read again, but hey! there is a bright side in everything I just gifted the book to my best friend and she totally loved. Maybe it's not my style, but I totally recommend you to give this a try.

READ AN EXCERPT HERE 

I flung the curtain open and stepped out, staring down at my breasts as I cupped them, pretending I didn’t see Jameson at all. “Lu, what do you think of my breasts in this bra? Do they look perky enough?”

I looked up, gasping in shock at seeing Jameson. “Oh, no,” I said, lifting my hand to caress the skin of my chest. “Jameson, I didn’t know you were in here.” Luella was snorting, trying to hold in her laughter at my exaggerated show. “But while you’re here, why don’t I get your opinion?” I cupped my boobs again, lifting them for inspection. “Do they look perky enough in this bra?”

Finally taking a moment to meet his eyes, I prepared myself for a look of embarrassed shock. Instead, I was greeted with overwhelming heat. If his eyes could reach out and touch me, they would have singed my skin. The smile slipped from my lips and I swallowed, trying to wet my dry mouth.

His eyes scanned all the way down to my pumps and back up to the breasts I lifted for his inspection. A lifetime seemed to pass as his stare stroked a fire across my skin. My breath stuttered out between my lips at the way he took me in. It threw me off and I was struggling to collect myself.

“Like what you see, Jameson?” Lu asked, laughter filling her voice.

His eyes blinked a few times, pulling himself from the trance. Looking between us, he seemed to make a decision. Standing tall, I prepared myself for whatever he would throw my way.

He focused his eyes on me and let them slide up my body again. But this time was different, it was an intentional ogling that shocked me. Jameson never stared at me like that. I would catch him every once in a while, checking me out, but never so openly ogling my body.

When he dropped the bag at Lu’s feet and started taking steps toward me, a fluttering kicked up in my chest. But I set my jaw and held his stare. Whatever his plan was, I would win.

Nothing could have prepared me for when he squatted down and hoisted me up over his shoulder. I let out a loud yelp and braced my hands on his firm ass. As he began walking with me still over his shoulder, I beat at his back and demanded, “Put me down, Jameson King!” His response was to slap my ass and keep walking. “Luella, help me!”

That traitor only laughed.

“Jameson, put me down!”

“Fine,” he said calmly, dropping me to the floor.

A victorious smile formed on my lips until I saw he had brought me into the fitting room. He winked before turning back to Luella, who was still laughing in her chair, and said, “Ignore the moan of pleasure coming from in here. It’s just me fucking Evie.” Her smile falling was the last thing I saw before the curtain closed and he turned to me.

My back hit the mirror as I backed away from him.

“Jameson,” I tried to reason. “Don’t you-”

My words were cut off as he covered my mouth with his hand, only letting muffled groans escape. “Oh yeah, Evie. Rub all over my dick. That’s a good girl.”

My eyes were going to pop out of my head from shock hearing Jameson talk dirty to me with his sister right outside. My body just leaned against the glass as I stared into his cocky eyes. They held victory because he had the upper hand and knew it. How was I losing?

I had reached out to grab his crotch when the curtain was ripped back and Lu’s eyes flicked from me to him, her lip curled in disgust. “Fucking gross, Jameson.”

Tossing his head back, he let out a deep laugh and removed his hand from my mouth. “Maybe that’ll teach you guys to stop playing with me.” He edged out of the small enclosure, kissing Lu on the head on his way out. “See you later, baby sister.” He gave me a wink before turning to walk out of the gold room, tossing over his shoulder, “Enjoy your dress shopping.”

We stood frozen, watching his retreating back. “Well, shit,” I muttered, dropping my shoulders in defeat.

Lu smirked. “Looks like you need to up your game, Evelyn.”

MORE BOOKS FROM FIONA

Where You Can Find Me – Released Nov 2015

Luella King has experienced loss all her life. After losing her parents and the most important person in her life, she hesitates to open up to anyone and instead plays it safe. One night, she throws caution to the wind and gives into her desires with a sexy stranger.

Fearing her sudden and unexpected loss of control, Luella runs away from him. A chance second encounter pushes her to open her eyes and give the stranger a chance.

There’s something about Jack MacCabe that makes her feel safe enough to lower her guard. Despite how busy he is with his job as a security specialist, they continue to spend more time together and with each date and late night message she finds herself falling in love.

When a serial killer wreaks havoc on their city, Jack's dangerously close proximity to the case reignites Luella's fears of losing someone important to her. Surrendering her fears in order to keep Jack by her side challenges Luella to her limits, while Jack is under pressure to catch the serial killer before it's too late.

As Jack and Luella draw closer to one another, the killer closes in on their next victim. Soon Jack and Luella find themselves entrenched in a mystery they never saw coming.

**Warning: This book may contain minor triggers due to sensitive topics.

Amazon – http://amzn.to/2g1GpQ9

Fiona Cole is a military wife and a stay at home mom with a degree in Biology and Chemistry. As much as she loved science she decided to postpone her career to stay at home with her two little girls and immersed herself in the world of books until finally deciding to write her own.

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Blog Tour: Forget Me Always by Sara Wolf

Forget Me Always (Lovely Vicious #2) by Sara Wolf

Publication Date: November 1, 2016

Publisher: Entangled Teen

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SynopsisIt’s been three years, twenty-five weeks, and five days since Isis Blake fell in love, and if she has it her way, it’ll stretch into infinity. Since then, she’s punched Jack Hunter—
her nemesis-turned-maybe-something-more—in the face, survived a brutal attack by her mom’s abusive ex thanks to Jack’s heroics, and then promptly forgotten all about him.
The one bright spot for Isis is Sophia, the ephemeral girl who shares Isis’s hospital stay as well as a murky past with Jack. But as Isis’s memories return, she finds it harder and
harder to resist what she felt for Jack, and Jack finds it impossible to stay away from the only girl who’s ever melted the ice around his heart.
As the dark secrets surrounding Sophia emerge, Isis realizes Jack isn’t who she thought he was. He’s dangerous. But when Isis starts receiving terrifying emails from an
anonymous source, that danger might be the only thing protecting her from something far more threatening.
Her past.

Purchase the book

AMAZON / KOBO / B&N / iBOOKS

It's been around two years since I read this amazing series Lovely Vicious, so I could not let the opportunity pass to inmerse myself once again in the incredible world of Jack and Isis.

As the second book in the series, we face new challenges and we have the opportunity to read more about Jack's POV. A lot of questions that were formed in the previous book are answered but we still have the amnesia Isis has, and how Sophia's character plays an important part in the story.

As always from the talented hands of Sara Wolf, we found ourselves caught up in a world of mystery and what can I say? Love. You will laugh at me for that probably, but once you start reading this series you will develop the major crush on Jack. Just like me. So, with a touch of drama and suspense Sara delivers the continuation of a story between two troubled souls that found on each other the way to heal, apparently.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

Book Title: Love Me Never (Lovely Vicious, #1)

Author: Sara Wolf

Release Date: Apr. 5, 2016

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance / Dark Comedy

Previously published as Lovely Vicious, this fully revised and updated edition is full of romance, intrigue, and laugh-out-loud moments.

Don’t love your enemy. Declare war on him.

Seventeen-year-old Isis Blake hasn’t fallen in love in three years, nine weeks, and five days, and after what happened last time, she intends to keep it that way. Since then she’s lost eighty-five pounds, gotten four streaks of purple in her hair, and moved to Buttcrack-of-Nowhere, Ohio, to help her mom escape a bad relationship.

All the girls in her new school want one thing—Jack Hunter, the Ice Prince of East Summit High. Hot as an Armani ad, smart enough to get into Yale, and colder than the Arctic, Jack Hunter’s never gone out with anyone. Sure, people have seen him downtown with beautiful women, but he’s never given high school girls the time of day. Until Isis punches him in the face.

Jack’s met his match. Suddenly everything is a game.

The goal: Make the other beg for mercy.

The game board: East Summit High.

The reward: Something neither of them expected.

Sara Wolf is a twenty-something author who adores baking, screaming at her cats, and screaming at herself while she types hilarious things. When she was a kid, she was too busy eating dirt to write her first terrible book. Twenty years later, she picked up a keyboard and started mashing her fists on it and created the monster known as the Lovely Vicious series. She lives in San Diego with two cats, a crippling-yet-refreshing sense of self-doubt, and not enough fruit tarts ever. 

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Blog Tour: Heat Wave by Karina Halle & an Exclusive Excerpt

HEAT WAVE

By Karina Halle

Standalone

Release Date: November 16, 2016

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Synopsis
They say when life closes one door, another one opens.This door happens to lead to paradise.And a man I can never, ever have.

Still grieving the loss of her sister who died two years ago, the last thing Veronica "Ronnie" Locke needed was to lose her job at one of Chicago’s finest restaurants and have to move back in with her parents. So when a window of opportunity opens for her – running a kitchen at a small Hawaiian hotel – she’d be crazy not to take it.

The only problem is, the man running the hotel drives her crazy:
Logan Shephard.
It doesn’t matter that he’s got dark brown eyes, a tall, muscular build that’s sculpted from daily surfing sessions, and a deep Australian accent that makes your toes curl.
What does matter is that he’s a grump.
Kind of an asshole, too.
And gets under Ronnie’s skin like no one else.

But the more time Ronnie spends on the island of Kauai, falling in love with the lush land and its carefree lifestyle, the closer she gets to Logan. And the closer she gets to Logan, the more she realizes she may have pegged him all wrong. Maybe it’s the hot, steamy jungles or the invigorating ocean air, but soon their relationship becomes utterly intoxicating.

There’s just one major catch.

The two of them together would incite a scandal neither Ronnie, nor her family, would ever recover from.

Forbidden, Illicit, off-limits – sometimes the heat is worth surrendering to, even if you get burned.

AMAZON / Paperback / Preorder iBooks / B&N

With a forbbiden story, filled with intensity and passion Karina Halle brings

Heat Wave. A book that was born in the heart of a paradise, where fate alings to brings

you love, a family - ohana - and the unexpected.

This is the story of a powerful second chance romance between Veronica Locke and

Logan Sheppard. From the beggining the author puts us on a place where the "what ifs" 

taint a love story that it looks like was doomed to fail from the first look shared between the couple, but see, life is tricky and wether we don't follow its rules we will end coming back to the ones that truly belong to us.

I saw him first.

It shamed me to think it then, it shames me to think it now.

But that’s what the truth does to you sometimes. It shames you because it’s only in the truth that you realize how human you really are. What a raw, devastating thing that is, to embrace your humanity and learn to live with all your sharp points, the hollow places, the cracks and the crevices. To be utterly real. To be terribly flawed.

Those cracks had always been forming inside me, slowly making their way to the surface over the years. In my family, there wasn’t much you could do but try and hold yourself together, to stick glue on your wounds, to paste over the imperfections. But the cracks still grew, until all of us were held together by crumbling cement, just statues waiting to collapse.

That was years and years ago. I was just twenty-two at the time. A baby. I’m still a baby in the grand scheme of things, but there’s something precious about your early twenties, where you think you’re so much older, bigger, than you are, where life is just about to deliver the crushing blows that will knock you off your feet for the rest of your days. The small things become the big things and the big things become the small things and you aren’t quite sure when they made the switch.

But in the end, I saw him first. He was mine, even before he knew it. He was mine in some strange way that I still don’t understand. The only way I can think of to explain it is…

You just know.

There are moments in your life, people in your life, that when they cross your path and meet your eye, you know. Maybe it’s all in the chemistry, certain pheromones that react when they mix together, maybe it’s a smell that triggers a memory, maybe it’s a glimpse at a future you don’t recognize or a hint at the past, a life you’ve lived and forgotten. Whatever it is, you know that moment, that person, is going to shape you for the rest of your life.

That’s what it was like when I saw him. Standing over by the windows and staring out Lake Michigan, like he was wishing he could be anywhere but there.

I wished the same. My mother’s the deputy mayor of Chicago and this was another one of her fundraisers I felt obliged to attend. It was tradition in my family, for my father, for me, for my sister, to show up and wave the flag of support. It didn’t seem to matter that the stuffy politicians that surrounded these events never paid me any attention. And if they did, it was the wrong kind of attention, always the sixty-year-old man leering after the young thing with the nice smile.

Luckily I didn’t smile all that often. My resting bitch face took over whenever I was deep in thought, which was pretty much all the time.

But this guy…I felt a kinship with him. I felt like I knew exactly what he was thinking, feeling, and that it was completely wrapped up in and connected to everything that was going through me.

I don’t know where I found the nerve to go over and talk to him. He seemed so much older, not quite the sixty-year-old politicians I was used to seeing, but maybe in his early-thirties. More than that, there was some kind of aura around him. Sounds stupid, I know. Whatever it was, it was like he belonged in some whole other universe than here, a star on earth, permanently grounded and yearning to be in the sky.

It was usually Juliet’s job to go around and make everyone feel warm and comfortable at these events—hell, in every event—but she wasn’t here yet. And though I could have easily stayed in the shadows, I was pulled to him, like he had a wave of gravity whirling around him.

I remember what I was wearing. Strappy flats because I hated wearing heels, a knee-length cocktail dress in emerald green, sleeveless, high-neck. It made me look older and I wore it because my mother always wanted me to look like a lady.

With a glass of champagne in hand, I made my way over to the windows, my heart racing the closer I got to him. He looked taller up close, well over six feet. His shoulders were broad, like a swimmer’s, and suddenly I had a vision of him diving into the lake. The navy blue suit he was wearing looked well-tailored but he seemed uncomfortable in it, like he couldn’t wait to get rid of it.

I stood beside him for a moment, following his gaze out the window. He seemed lost in his thoughts but out of my peripheral his head tilted slightly and he brought his eyes over to me while I kept staring at that wide expanse of water, stretching out to the horizon.

“Can’t wait to get out of here?” I asked, but though my tone was mild, my delivery was bold. It was as if someone else had taken a hold of my body, forcing me to speak. I slowly turned my head to meet his eyes.

I was taken aback for a second. He was staring at me like he knew me, even though I’d never seen him before. Then again, I was sure I’d been staring at him in the same way. That feeling of knowing. He knew me, I knew him, and who the hell knows how that was possible.

His eyes were brown—are brown—dark with currents of gold and amber, giving them beautiful clarity. Slightly almond shaped. His brows were also dark, arched, adding to the intensity of his gaze. He’s the type of guy whose eyes latch onto you, dig deep, trying to sift through the files of your life, see who you really are.

“How did you know?” he asked, a full-on Australian accent rumbling through his gruff voice. It made my stomach flip, my core smolder. How deed you now, is what it sounded like. Funny how I stopped hearing the accent after time.

I gave a half shrug and looked back to the party. More people had flooded the room, mingling around the appetizers. My mother was in the corner, a crowd of politicians around her. She didn’t see me. She never did.

“Because I think I’d rather be in the middle of Lake Michigan too,” I told him, “then be stuck here with all these people.”

“These people,” he repeated. My focus was drawn to his lips, full, wide, tilting up into a smirk. Beneath them was a strong chin and even sharper jaw, dusted with a five o’clock shadow that seemed permanent, like the man couldn’t get a clean shave even if he tried. “How do you know I’m not one of these people?”

“Because you’re over here and not over there. How come you keep answering my questions with more questions?”

He studied me for a moment. My blood pounded in my head and I felt a giddy kind of thrill at how this was progressing. If anything, I was proud for holding my own with this handsome stranger. He was the first man I ever really felt at ease with.

He cleared his throat, offered me a quick smile before he nodded at the lake, his hands sliding into his pockets. “She almost looks like the ocean, doesn’t she?”

“Not quite the same as Australia, I would imagine.”

“No hiding this accent, is there?” He glanced at me and stuck out his hand, which I shook for a moment, warm palm to warm palm. “I’m Logan Shepard. Australian. And the reason I’m here is because I was invited by a friend of mine. I’m only in town for a few days and he didn’t want to go alone. He’s over there.” He nodded at a tall black man in the corner, listening intently to another man.

 “Warren Jones,” he said, as if I should know him. Perhaps I should. He probably thought I was one of them. “He’s local and the key piece to my investment.”

I wasn’t one for business talk—I never had anything to contribute other than lamenting student loans—but I wanted him to keep talking. “What’s your investment?”

“Starting my own hotel,” he said. “In Hawaii. Have you ever been there?”

“Once. When I was eight. I think we were in Honolulu. I remember a city, anyway. Waikiki Beach.”

“This hotel is in Kauai. The Garden Isle. Went there once as a teenager and couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

I didn’t know the right things to say. I wanted to ask more about the hotel, what it means when you have an investor, but I didn’t want to appear dumb. I kept my mouth shut.

“You haven’t introduced yourself,” he said. “Protecting a secret identity?”

I smiled, close-lipped. “Not really. I’m Veronica Locke. American. And I unfortunately I don’t have much else to add to that.”

“Locke?” he repeated, eyes darting to my mother. “Are you the daughter of the deputy mayor, Rose Locke?”

“One of them,” I told him.

He nodded quickly. “I see. No wonder you’d rather be in the middle of the bloody lake. I bet you have to do this stuff all the time.”

“It’s not so bad.” I took a sip of my drink so I didn’t have to say anything more and looked away at the crowd. The bubbles teased my nose, making my eyes water.

I could feel his gaze on me as he spoke. “I’m sure you have plenty more to say about yourself though. Where do you work? Student?”

“Culinary arts,” I told him. “I’m one of those crazy people who dream of being a chef one day.”

He frowned. “Why is that crazy?”

I gave him a look, forgetting that most people have no idea how hard it is. “Because it’s a long road, long hours, and nothing is guaranteed. People think being a chef is easy. They see Gordon Ramsey or Nigella Lawson and think it’s all fame and food and money and they have no idea what it’s really like. I’m not even out of school and already I feel half-beaten.”

He was still frowning. He did that a lot, I would soon learn. “Sounds like life to me.” His eyes dropped to my lips and something intensely carnal came over them, like suddenly I was the food, not the wannabe chef. “Did you want to get a drink somewhere. After this? When you’ve done your daughterly duties?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t know what a drink meant. Just a drink? A date? Was it sex? I started going through my head, trying to think of reasons why it was a bad idea. My legs were shaved, did my bra and underwear match? Did I have a condom? I had taken the pill this morning, even though my last boyfriend and I had broken up months ago. I hadn’t been with a guy, let alone a man, in a long time.

Don’t flatter yourself, I quickly thought. What makes you think he’d be interested in you that way?

“Yes,” I said when I finally found my voice. “Yes, I would like that.”

A spark flashed in his eyes, lighting them up in such a way that made my toes literally curl. Damn. I was in trouble with this man. “Any way you can get out of your duties sooner?” he asked.

I couldn’t help but smile, raising my brow at his presumptuousness, while simultaneously trying to hide the fact that I was freaking out. I looked around the room and tried to judge how likely it was that someone would notice if I was gone. My mom was still surrounded by a wall of people and no one was paying any attention to us, standing by the windows, already removed.

A sad thought hit me, sliding past before I could really dwell on it: no one even notices when I’m here.

“If we’re quick and sneaky,” I told him.

“Being quick isn’t in my repertoire,” he said, “but I could give it a shot.”

Again. Damn. I wasn’t one to blush but I could feel my cheeks heating up and hoped my skin supressed the flush. He was so much older than me in so many ways, the last thing I wanted was to appear the naïve schoolgirl.

And I didn’t know what to say to that. He was staring at me with those dark eyes, a look so intense yet sparkling with charm and something…wicked.

I’d never find out how wicked they could be.

“Ronnie!” A melodic, ultra-feminine voice sliced through the moment like an unwieldy machete, causing me to flinch, my fingers tightening around the stem of the glass.

Oh no, I thought. Not now.

Logan’s head swiveled toward the sound of the voice, like a hound picking up a scent. I didn’t bother looking over, I kept my focus on him, watching his expression intently. It changed, as I knew it would.

She had walked into the room.

He saw her.

And like it was for so many men, that look of lust I had thought was for me, was now for her.

That’s when I knew it was over. Whatever thing I had felt for him, it didn’t matter anymore, not when she was in the room. Nothing ever mattered as long as she was around.

I might have saw him first.

But he was all hers after that.

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.

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New Release: TAKE MY DARE by J. Kenner

TAKE MY DARE

By: J. Kenner

Release Date: November 8, 2016

SynopsisI’ve never been happier than I am with Jackson Steele. But I should know better than anyone that happiness always comes at a price ...
My life with Jackson is nothing short of perfection. He is my love, my husband, the one man in all the world who makes me feel alive and whole. Our careers are on track. Our family is growing. And the ghosts of our past have been vanquished – or so I believed.
When a wonderful night of sensuality and passion following a masquerade ball turns dark with the news that haunting, horrible photographs of me have surfaced, my old fears and insecurities threaten to knock me down, and it is only within Jackson’s arms that I find the strength to endure.
But even Jackson’s protection may not be able to save us, because I know my husband well. And he will do whatever it takes—even if it means risking himself—in order to protect our family…
Contains a bonus Steele Short Story, Steal My Heart!

Purchase the Book

Amazon - http://amzn.to/2cwLgE2 

iBooks - http://apple.co/2cgOIaZ 

B&N - http://bit.ly/2d35DgT 

Amazon UK - http://amzn.to/2eR7ph1

Amazon ANZ - http://amzn.to/2eaL667

Kobo UK - http://bit.ly/2eRxpKb

It's clear that it is necessary to read the first books in the series to understand completely what this novella is about. After all, I was a little lost at the beginning cause I had to re read the books first. That being said, as every J. Kenner's book, reading about this couple again brought a little of happiness despite the circumstances.

Take My Dare is a short novella, I won't spoil anything because the story will develop at its tempo when you start reading it. That being said... This couple... it is fascinating to read about this couple. When you thought they had found the ultimate happily ever after, life threw them a curved ball but once again the love they have for each other runs deeply. They showed that after facing another battle that threatened what they had built. Jackson adores his wife and being a witness of this love was amazing. Sylvia is a strong woman that amazed even more. They are a united front and it was clear in this book that nothing can get past them. Because a couple like this one, is meant to be together even if the circumstances say the contrary.

J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly,  Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.

Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy,  and paranormal mommy lit.

JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A five time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy). Her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (as Julie Kenner) is currently in development with AwesomenessTV/Awestruck.

Her books have sold over three million  copies and are published in over twenty languages.

In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas.  She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.