Tag Archives: Xpresso Book Tours

Giveaway – Dorothy in the Land of Monsters by Garten Gevedon @GartenGevedon @XpressoTours

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Dorothy In the Land of Monsters
Garten Gevedon
(Oz ReVamped, #1)
Publication date: October 11th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult

Shifters, Zombies, and Vampires? Oh my!

My name is Dorothy Gale, and I think I might be dead.

When my dog Toto and I got swept up in a twister, we landed in hell. A very colorful hell. Like a rainbow dripping in blood. Now it looks as though this dreadful underworld plagued with vampires, zombies, and shifters will be the site of my eternal damnation.

They say this terrifying land called Oz isn’t hell or purgatory and escape is possible, but first I must survive the journey down the blood-soaked yellow brick road to the only place in Oz where vampires dare not tread—The City of Emeralds.

With enchanted footwear and the help of my three new friends—a friendly zombie, a massive shifter lion, and a heartless axe murderer of evil night creatures (who also happens to be the hottest guy I’ve ever seen)—Toto and I have a chance to make it to the Vampire Free Zone. When we get there, I must convince the most powerful wizard in this magical land of monsters to send us out of this radiant nightmare and back to the world of the living. They say he’s just as frightening as this monstrous land, that he detests visitors, and even the most horrifying creatures cower in his presence. But I must seek him out. And when I find him, I’ll do whatever it takes to make him send me home.

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EXCERPT:

Gray everywhere. As I stand on the porch of my aunt and uncle’s home, all I can see is the great gray expanse of prairie on every side. No trees, houses, buildings, people, nothing at all breaks the broad sweep of flat gray country that reaches to the edge of the gray sky in every direction. The sun scorched the plowed fields into a dusty, gray mass that expands to the horizon line, the endless gloom broken only by the little black shadows of the fissures running through it like the marbling of a corpse.

Even the grass is dead and gray—the hot sun singed the blades until they were the same lifeless gray color that blankets everything. Years ago, the house was a pristine white, but the torrid summer sun burned and blistered the paint and the heavy winter rains battered it away, and now the house is as weathered and gray as everything else here. It’s fitting for what it’s like to live here in Middle of Nowhere, Kansas. It looks like what it is—bleak, leached of any color, any excitement, anything interesting at all—drained of life. Gray is gray is gray is my life. It surrounds me from all sides, all the time. And it sucks. Thanks a lot, climate change.

I came to live with my Uncle Henry and Aunt Emily on a crappy little farm when my parents died in a car accident. I was thirteen. Because Emily was the only family I had left, she got stuck with me. She could have refused me and left me as a ward of the state, but she was kind enough to take me in. Even though I don’t share the same connection with Emily and Henry that I did with my parents, they’re still family—the only family I have—so, I may complain about this being the middle of nowhere, but it’s better than being in an orphanage or foster care or some group home. Yeah, their place is tiny, and old, but at least it has four walls, a floor, and a roof.

The two-bedroom farmhouse I live in is as weathered and brittle as the farm it’s set on. One story with no attic and no basement, the only feature it has is a cyclone cellar which we’ve had yet to use since I’ve lived here. It may lack color and any of the luxuries most people in America have these days—cable, wifi, consistent hot water to shower with—but I am grateful I have somewhere to live, even if life here is so gray that the grayness proliferates, turning everything in it to a gray as dry as dust.

When Aunt Emily came here to live with Uncle Henry, she was a young, pretty, vivacious woman with golden hair and bright emerald green eyes—or I thought I remembered her that way. Even she’s gray now. Just like it changed this once green land, the sun and wind have changed her, and her once sparkling green eyes are now dim and muted, tinged with a melancholy gray. Living here in this sweltering, exanimate world has stolen her radiance and left her ashen. It’s exhausted the red from her cheeks and lips, and now they’re pallid and gray too. Once she was curvy and a little plump. Now she’s gaunt and never smiles. Can’t blame her for never smiling, living in this dull, gray crap hole.

When I first came to her, Aunt Emily would startle when I laughed. She’d scream and look at me like I was nuts, shocked I could find anything to laugh at in this gray place. Uncomfortable and bored out of my skull, I’d laugh trying to entertain myself, trying not to let the depression get the best of me, but after being here for four years, I get it now—what is there to laugh about when all that’s here is gray?

Uncle Henry never laughs either. Morning to night, all he does is work hard. If he knows what joy is, he doesn’t let on. From his gray beard to his rough boots, Henry is also gray, stern, and solemn. With a permanent stone face, he almost never speaks. It’s like he’s made of hard, gray stone. If he didn’t work so much trying to make this gray land yield something, I’d think he was stone—a gray statue of a man.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s me that’s gray, or the lens I see the world through. Before my parents died, my life was a bright white, like a pristine sheet of paper wishing for a colorful story to grace its surface. Then the black smear of tragedy struck, and it’s as though the thousands of tears I shed diffused the black that blemished my bright whiteness, spreading it over the unsullied parts like watercolor, leaving my world gray. But I don’t think I’m gray. Not yet. I don’t think it has spread to me yet.

—“Dorothy in the Land of Monsters” Oz ReVamped #1
Chapter 1 – The Cyclone, pgs. 1-2

Author Bio:

Garten Gevedon lives in New York City with her family. She’s a sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal author who loves taking fairy tales and turning them inside out. You can visit her online at www.gartengevedon.com.

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Giveaway – Primal Mate by Tabitha Black @BlushingTabitha @XpressoTours

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Primal Mate
Tabitha Black
(Alphas of Sandor, #2)
Published by: Blushing Books Publications
Publication date: October 15th 2019
Genres: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction

It happened at the worst possible time…

Nobody knows my terrible secret – not my friends, not my colleagues, not even my powerful father. All this time, I’ve been living and working amongst them as a respected, high-powered Alpha woman.

The only thing saving me from certain ruin and the destruction of my dreams are the suppressants I take daily, the medication I’ve been using to hide in plain sight. Because, in truth, I’m an Omega.

And then the unthinkable happens. The suppressants stop working in a crowded room full of Alpha men, one of whom decides we’re fated to be together.

He will pursue me until I surrender but while my body craves him, I refuse to give up my life to become nothing more than an Alpha’s mate…

Publisher’s Note: This dark MF Omegaverse romance contains elements of power exchange and explicit scenes which may trigger some readers.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

It had started with a slight tingle so faint, Evander had wondered whether he was imagining it. After years of fruitless hunting for his mate, it was logical that he might mistake even the slightest unusual sensation as a sign he was finally going into rut.

But while he had been talking to Clara, the tingle had morphed into a ball of lust which had slammed through his lower belly so violently, he felt winded. Simultaneously, a divine, musky scent had filled his nostrils, intensifying a deep ache in his groin and putting all his senses on high alert.

After all this time, after all these years of waiting, it was finally happening.

Evander was going into rut.

Barely able to contain his excitement, he had immediately excused himself from the attractive, brunette Clara and examined every single Omega female in the immediate vicinity. Oddly, instead of intensifying, the scent had grown fainter.

Clouded as his mind was with the sudden onslaught of pheromones flooding his system and sending his primal instinct into overdrive, it had taken a moment for him to put two and two together.

But it couldn’t be. Clara was an Alpha, like him.

Author Bio:

USA Today bestselling author Tabitha Black has been writing erotic romance for well over a decade, mostly in the age-play and historical genres. More recently, she’s discovered the joys of writing more contemporary books with a greater emphasis on BDSM, as well as darker, edgier fiction.

Having lived in four countries on three different continents, she likes to “write to discover what she knows.”

She has a weakness for great coffee, strong, kind but dominant men, and tattoos. At the time of writing, she lives in Germany with her very own dominant, sadistic and loyal romantic hero, and a lilac cat who likes to sneeze in her face.

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Giveaway – The Long Night by M G Darwish @infrangilis @XpressoTours

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The Long Night: Blood Will Be Served
M.G. Darwish
(Fortier, #2)
Publication date: September 9th 2019
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Suspense

The Vampire Alfred, is known as the Fortier. Vicious, renowned and feared.

Alfred Zeidan is proclaimed Fortier, the Strongest amongst the vampires. After ending a century old feud between the two most prominent vampire houses, he sets out to rid his race of a shadow that has long haunted them.

The Elders have been the deciding factor in the fall of so many civilizations that date back to Carthage and the Romans. So many have fallen to them, but now Alfred as the Strongest takes on this challenge.

No one has ever considered a world without the Elders running it, would it spread chaos in the Underground? Or will it shift the balance of the supernatural completely? One thing is for certain: Alfred intends to see this through. Will he succeed? Or will succumb as those before him?

Excerpt 1 They mentioned the City Morgue and the name Lexa Sonej. She wasn’t a native. Only then, any doubt I had about the existence of the Beast perished. Only the Beast could inflict wounds similar to mine. Time to visit the dead. I leapt over the roofs of houses until the City Morgue came into sight. That was the safest way to travel on the surface, you see. Humans are always looking below. I jumped down right at the entrance. It was late, so probably the best time for me to examine an unattended body. Perhaps I could find a trail or two. I noticed a light emitting from inside. The coroner could still be around. With luck, he probably used another door and left it unchecked so that he could leave too. So, I went behind the building and sure enough, found another door. The gate was locked, but it didn’t matter. I jumped, high enough to pass right over it. I opened the door into pitch darkness. He probably knew the place so well that he had it completely memorized. Lucky for me, I didn’t need light to see anyway. I could smell the rotten corpses. Even when humans freeze the bodies, they emit a smell – undetectable to humans but not to me. I followed the smell, using it to find the clear route to where I needed to go. I strolled through a narrow corridor, staying completely silent; no breaths, footsteps, nothing. I am more comfortable amidst darkness than I am in light, for the dark accepts all, while the light judges harshly. A large double door stood before me. This was the way to the corpses, of that I was sure. I gently opened it and slid inside. The coroner was looking at me straight in the eyes. “What are you doing here?” he said, sharply. His heartbeat increased. “I’m looking for Lexa Sonej,” I said to him. I figured it was best to avoid spilling his blood, and if I could somehow get his help, it would save me quite the trouble. “Well, you’re in the wrong place, buddy,” he said, then cracked up. “Only dead men linger here.” His beats returned to normal, I wonder if he knew how correct his statement was about to be. “Need to examine the body, if you don’t mind.” “You with the cops?” he asked, as he narrowed his brows. “Not exactly.” He probably hated cops. I could even smell traces of drugs in his possession. “Her family hired me to find the killer,” I added. “A PI, eh? Well, you definitely look the part, but you should tone down the Sherlock look. Holy shit, it’s not the sixties,” he laughed before he got up from his chair and walked towards what appeared to be little cupboards with numbers on them. “Sherlock died in 1957.” “A smartass too apparently,” he whispered as he pulled open one of those cupboards, revealing a bed with a body on it. I’ve never seen such a barbaric thing in all my life. “You have quite the stomach I’ll tell you that,” he said to me, then paused for a second. “Most people freak out or even puke their guts out when they see a body like this.” “A body like what?” “Like this,” he said as he removed the covers. I didn’t budge, but that sight was not right. Her throat was hollow, completely empty and void, she had sewing marks on both of her arms and towards her stomach. “She was dismembered?” I asked. The coroner nodded. “That’s very observant. We had to sew back the parts just for the burial. His poor family almost feinted at the sight of her. What kind of an animal does this in your opinion?” he asked me. His pulse didn’t change, so he was merely making small talk. “No animal can do this,” I said, leaning closer towards the corpse. “Then what can?” “A beast,” I said.

Goodreads / Amazon


Author Bio:

M.G. Darwish is an award nominated author who writes dark, twisted and action-packed fiction. He tries his best not to base his characters on anyone he knows in real life to avoid that extra weird conversation about how they were brutalized and killed in the book. Oh and he’s terrified of a penguin uprising more than ghosts and demons.

He is best known for his Secret of the Moonlight which was featured on Wattpad.

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Giveaway – Merged by Jim and Stephanie Kroepfl @jimnstephbooks @XpressoTours

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Merged
Jim and Stephanie Kroepfl
Published by: Month9Books
Publication date: September 17th 2019
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Seven of our country’s most gifted teens will become Nobels, hosts for the implantation of brilliant Mentor minds, in an effort to accelerate human progress.

But as the line between what’s possible and what’s right, draws ever blurrier, the teens discover everything has a cost.

Scientists have created an evolved form of living known as Merged Consciousness, and sixteen-year-old Lake finds herself unable to merge with her Mentor.

Lake, the Nobel for Chemistry and Orfyn, the Nobel for Art, are two from among the inaugural class of Nobels, and with the best intent and motivation. But when Stryker, the Nobel for Peace, makes them question the motivation of the scientists behind the program, their world begins to unravel.

As the Nobels work to uncover the dark secrets of the program’s origins, everyone’s a suspect and no one can be trusted, not even the other Nobels.

As the Mentors begin to take over the bodies and minds of the Nobels, Lake and Orfyn must find a way to regain control before they lose all semblance or memory of their former selves.

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EXCERPT:

Depending on your point of view, I’m either famous or infamous. I’m called by many names: Ward of the State, Orphaned, Foofool (only by Sister Mo), and Kevin. That last one makes me feel like I’m wearing someone else’s clothes. Tight and loose in all the wrong places. So, I came up with my own name, though no one has ever connected it to me. The identity of street artists should never be revealed.

I flick turpentine at a rat that’s getting a little too curious about my brushes. The alley smells like something died, making me wonder if there’s a body in the dumpster. Michelangelo cut up dead people to better understand how we’re built. If he was willing to do that for his art, I can endure this stink for one night. I breathe through my mouth and get back to work.

After four straight hours, the painting is coming along great, and I know I can finish it before people start heading out for their nine-to-five jobs. I paint madly, getting lost in the scene, moving from figure to figure, jersey to jersey. It’s my best work yet, and I want this one to last.

At least, for a few days.

Author Bio:

Jim and Stephanie Kroepfl are a husband-and-wife team who write YA novels and stories of mystery and adventure from their cabin in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Their debut novel, Merged, will be released by Month9Books on September 17, 2019.

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Giveaway – The Last Huntsman by Page Morgan @PageMorganBooks @XpressoTours

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The Last Huntsman
Page Morgan
Publication date: September 9th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

No women. No children. No torture. The Huntsman has his rules.

For years, Tobin has done his emperor’s bidding, eliminating threats to the Empire of Morvansk. But when he is ordered to kill the lovely Princess Mara, Tobin’s absolute loyalty ends. The emperor’s punishment is swift and lethal, and Tobin is left with only one desire: vengeance.

Stay quiet. Stay hidden. Stay free. These are the rules Ever lives by.

Raised as a boy by her overprotective father, Ever has something the Morvansk emperor covets: mirror magic. With it, she can see anyone, anywhere, through the mirror’s glass. The emperor stole her mother years ago for this same magic, and now, he wants Ever, too.

When Ever’s mirror shows the wounded rebel huntsman approaching her village, she’s compelled to help him. But as Tobin and Ever grow closer, and their secrets intertwine, they’ll have to follow the rules they’ve always lived by—or break free from them, once and for all.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

The shriek of a bird drew my eyes to the trees above. When I looked down, Mara stepped into the clearing. The call of the nuisance bird muted, as did everything else in the world surrounding the glade. She came through the tall grasses, her lavender colored skirts gathered in her hands to keep the hem from getting soiled against the ground.

I closed my eyes and forced forward the image of my mother. Of Kinn, of Lael. The worst five minutes of my life were about to unfold, and I had to keep those three faces present if I had any hope of following through.

I opened my eyes as Mara searched the glade for Orin, the man she believed had beckoned her there. She lifted her face to the sun, most likely chilled from the walk through the dim forest.

Mother.

Kinn.

Lael.

I looked into the hushed wood. Her ladies would have made plenty of noise had they followed, and her guards’ steel swords and metal fixtures would have been a clattering racket. She’d come alone, just as the note had bid.

She fiddled nervously with the front tucks of her skirt, not seeing me as I stood. I parted the flexible pines and stepped past the young green needles, coming to the edge of the brook’s banking. It was then that the princess spotted me. She let out a small yelp and dropped her skirts. Covering her mouth with her hands, Mara released her breath.

“Huntsman, you frightened me.” She lowered her hand and sent me a small smile, though it quickly fell. “What are you doing here? You didn’t…did you read the note you delivered this morning?”

Don’t look at her. Don’t listen to her.

“Forgive me, of course you didn’t. Are you hunting?” she asked as I stepped across the three rocks in the brook and into the glade.

The sun hit me, and my legs turned to dead weight. They didn’t want to move any closer. My hands, too, stayed heavy at my sides. The blade with the prince’s crest was inside my trouser waistline, and my own personal blades were where I always kept them.

“I’m meeting the prince,” she said, her voice notched louder. “It’s not very indecent, considering we are to be married,” she added with a half smile.

I strode through the grass toward her, pushing the slab of stone in my chest lower to crush the rapid beating of my heart. Mara’s shrewd eyes narrowed. My presence made her nervous, yet she didn’t back away as I came to within a foot of her.

Mother.

Kinn.

Lael.

“The prince is not coming.”

Mara looked sideways at me. “How do you know this?” Her facial muscles went slack. “You’ve done something to him.”

“I’ve already told you,” I said. Level. Clear. “The emperor did not send me to kill the prince.”

She wanted to believe me. Just like she believed me the other night when I said we were friends. I could see it in the way she shifted her bottom lip side to side, gripping the inside of it with her teeth.

“Then why have you followed me here?” she asked.

There was not supposed to be any conversation. I’d been taught to be brief, to make sure the target knew who had come for him and why, and then to finish before the target could beg or offer money in return for leniency.

“I didn’t follow you.” I reached inside my jacket and gripped Orin’s blade, the gold of the crossed hilt cool under my hot, sweaty palm.

She stared at me with a confused grimace, paying no attention to my hand.

“I led you here,” I said. “It is Emperor Frederic’s order, princess. I am only his servant.”

The last sentence spilled out of my mouth unintentionally, and with it, I caught the first whiff of my decaying will. The Huntsman didn’t explain himself. The Huntsman didn’t make excuses.

I pulled the dagger and stepped forward so swiftly Mara didn’t know to resist. She was taller than me, but I was stronger and faster; I wrapped my arm around her neck and her knees buckled, her chin wedging tight inside my crooked elbow. She screamed, but my bicep and forearm squelched it into a sputtering croak.

Mother.

Kinn.

Lael.


Author Bio:

Page is the author of THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CURSED, THE LOVELY AND THE LOST, and THE WONDROUS AND THE WICKED, young adult gothic thrillers critically acclaimed by Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal, VOYA, and The Bulletin. Page’s novels have been an IndieNext selection, a Seventeen Magazine Summer Book Club Read, and a #1 Amazon bestseller. Her next book, THE LAST HUNTSMAN, is a reimagining of the Huntsman and Magic Mirror from the tale of Snow White. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their three daughters, an English Pointer, an arrogant cat, two boring bearded dragons, a one-eared bunny, a bunch of chickens, and during the summer and fall, their neighbor’s two sweet horses.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram


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Giveaway – In Over Her Head by Krysten Lindsay Hager @KrystenLindsay @XpressoTours

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In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety
Krysten Lindsay Hager
(The Cecily Taylor Series, #2)
Publication date: September 3rd 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Cecily feels like she has it all: great best friends, the beginnings of a career as a model/actress, and she’s dating her favorite singer, Andrew Holiday. Then Cecily’s best friend Lila begins to ditch her every time Lila’s boyfriend calls. Cecily feels lost, but she and Andrew begin connecting more and she’s never been in a relationship where she felt so understood. Andrew even begins to confide in her about his anxiety. Soon Cecily experiences her own anxiety on a magazine photo shoot, but she manages to impress the magazine staff. Just when it seems like all her dreams are coming true, everything comes crashing down when a photo of Andrew with another girl appears online. He swears nothing happened, but Cecily is crushed. She feels like she’s lost two of the people closest to her. Was her perfect relationship real or was she in over her head?

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

“Good luck at the photo shoot tomorrow,” he said. “You’ll be great.”

I stared out the window on the ride back to the hotel taking in all the sites. As I walked into the hotel I felt a new air of confidence. Instead of just reading about someone going out with a pop star to some fabulous rooftop hotel restaurant and being in the big city, I was living it. This was my life and not some YA book heroine’s. Tomorrow I was off on a modeling shoot. I was living a dream and proving how I was ready for a big life. This was my destiny. I could do this.

****

My alarm went off and at the same time an alarm went off in my brain saying, no, I could not do this. What was I thinking? Me, model? That’s where people take photos of you for the sole purpose of other people looking at them, which encouraged judgement and evil comments. People don’t just keep those comments to themselves anymore. Oh no, they grab their phone or laptop or whatever device helps them spew out unhelpful and cruel comments on people’s appearances online for all the world to see.

My stomach felt like spewing all over the nice hotel sheets I was wrapped in. Why did I ever think I was up for this? Those strangers online would destroy me within seconds. Girls like Harlow who were born with an undeniable beauty could do stuff like this and even then, I had seen strangers criticize her online when she posted selfies.

Being anxious always made all my senses go nuts. I ate two slices of toast and then my stomach did a weird flipping thing. Oh no, not today. Looking over at the clock I realized it was almost time for us to leave. Come on, stomach. You’re fine. Just relax and…nope, time to hit the bathroom. Why can’t I just be a big girl and go to this stupid shoot which most girls would kill to do without my stomach freaking out?

Author Bio:

Who knew all those embarrassing, cringe-y moments in middle school and high school could turn into a career? And who would have thought that daydreaming in math class would pay off down the road?

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values.

She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, and Can Dreams Come True. True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers’ Favorite Book Award Finalist. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient. Krysten’s work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton.

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Giveaway – No More Bad Dates by Kate O’Keeffe @kateokeeffe4 @XpressoTours

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No More Bad Dates
Kate O’Keeffe
((High Team #1) (Cozy Cottage Café, #5))
Publication date: September 5th 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “The perfect fun-filled escape from reality. Kate O’Keeffe at her delightful best!”- Whitney Dineen, bestselling author of Relatively Normal

Three friends form the No More Bad Dates Pact: stop dating the wrong guys and start dating the right ones – weirdos and jerks need not apply.

Twenty-five-year-old Sophie McCarthy’s career is virtually nonexistent, her family expects her to “do something important” with her life, and she’s totally sick of dating the wrong guys: the self-absorbed, the arrogant, the borderline criminally insane.

After she’s unceremoniously dumped during the vows at her boss’s wedding, she and her two equally disappointed-in-love best friends agree to help each other find decent guys to date. Together, they form the No More Bad Dates Pact: stop dating the wrong guys and start dating the right ones–weirdos and jerks need not apply.

When Sophie’s roommate Jason Christie–a.k.a. doctor-in-training and serial nurse-dater–joins the pact, he vows to weed out the bad ones for her. But with his rejection of every guy Sophie meets, she begins to wonder if he’s got an ulterior motive. And anyway, why does she always have so much more fun with Jason than with the guys she’s actually trying to date?

While desperately seeking her “happy for now,” could Sophie stumble into her “happily ever after?”

High Tea is a spin-off of Kate O’Keeffe’s bestselling Cozy Cottage Café series. Escape to New Zealand in this fun, feel-good chick lit series!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “I love this book! If you want a novel you won’t be able to put down and will leave you with a smile on your face after you finish it, this is a great choice! So sweet and romantic!” – Annabelle Costa, bestselling author of My Perfect Ex-Boyfriend

Books in the High Tea series:
Book 1: No More Bad Dates
Book 2: No More Terrible Dates – releasing very soon!
Book 3: No More Horrible Dates – releasing soon!

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

I love weddings. The emotion, the vows, the optimism, the dress. All of it. I know I’m a total romantic, and about a gazillion marriages end in divorce every year, but I don’t care. When I watch a happy couple show the world their love, tears well in my eyes and my heart expands because in that moment, something utterly magical happens.

What more can I say? I love weddings, pure and simple.

Or at least I did until the thing happened.

Picture this. I’m at a beautiful, emotional, swept-up-in-it-all type of wedding. I’m sitting on an uncomfortably hard wooden pew, the scent in the air a heady mixture of flowers and polished wood. The late-afternoon light filters through the ornate stained glass windows, illuminating the beautiful bride and her handsome groom.

So far, so wonderful.

As I watch the bride, dressed in the most beautiful vintage fifties wedding dress I’ve seen—nipped in at the waist, showing off all her curves to (classy) perfection—her Norse god-like husband-to-be reaches out and takes her hands in his. They gaze at one another, their faces alight with a love so real, I can almost reach out and touch it.

Which I don’t, of course. That would be weird.

Instead, I turn and smile at my boyfriend, my hand over my heart. Andrew glances at me briefly before he returns his attention to the vows.

“Bailey. I love you more than I could ever imagine loving anyone. You are my life, my soul. Reflected in your eyes, I am a better man. Thank you.” Ryan’s voice, a.k.a. the voice of Thor, the Norse god, cracks with emotion, and half the congregation—all the women and probably most of the men, although I bet they would never admit it—reach for their tissues.

I open my clutch and pull out a Kleenex. I dab at my eyes and glance once more at Andrew. Noticing his brows knitted together, I smile, embarrassed. “What Ryan said?” I whisper, my voice trembling. “So, so perfect.”

“Yeah, it was all right, I guess. If you go in for that sort of crap,” Andrew replies, crinkling his nose with distaste.

Crap? What does he mean, crap?

I open my mouth to ask, but now isn’t the time. Bailey has begun her own vows, her voice so heavy with emotion, I’m amazed any of us can make out a single word. I think she’s saying something about Ryan being her best friend, and how he’s helped her become the vermin she is. No, wait. That would be how he’s helped her become the woman she is. Yes, that sounds much more appropriate and wedding-y.

The problem is, I’m so busy trying to work out what’s going on with my boyfriend, I’ve lost all focus on the ceremony unfolding before my eyes. Sure, I know he’s not the most romantic of souls, but even a rugby-playing, one-of-the-guys, rugged type like Andrew can see how much these two love each other, right? I mean, he’s not a freaking robot.

I nudge him in the ribs. “You okay?”

“Yup. Fine.” His words are clipped, and he keeps his eyes trained on the couple at the altar.

And then it hits me. I know what’s going on here! He’s being swept away by the beauty of it all, too, only he wants to appear all manly and stoic. He’s pretending to be grumpy to cover it up. Guys pull dumb stuff like that all the time. I should know; I’ve dated a few.

A few too many, actually.

I lean closer to him and place my hand on his. “I think it’s wonderful. They love each other so much.”

Andrew harrumphs in response.

I pat his hand knowingly. “It’s okay, honey. I know you feel it, too.” I settle back into my seat, prepared once more to be tangled up in the love emanating from the soon-to-be-wed couple, when I notice a girl in the aisle opposite us turn and smile. She’s wearing an eye-catching red dress that leaves little to the imagination. It’s totally inappropriate for a wedding, in my opinion, but she’s rocking it, that’s for sure. I smile back at her and wonder how I know her. Maybe she’s a customer at the Cozy Cottage Café? I’ve worked there for a few years now, and I often see our regulars out and about in the city.

Her face flushes and she looks away.

Weird.

And then it happens again.

“Who’s she?” I whisper to Andrew.

“Who?”

“The girl in the red dress. She keeps smiling at me, and I can’t think who she is.”

“Oh, err . . . Cindy, I think? Or Sandy? Something like that. We met her at that karaoke bar you love so much,” Andrew replies.

“Jojo’s? Really? I don’t remember.” I give his hand another squeeze and return my attention to the wedding.

“—the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest exclaims. “You may kiss!”

As Bailey and Ryan do precisely that, the congregation erupts into applause. Swept up in the sheer romance of the moment, I go out on a limb. Not because I’m “there” with Andrew yet exactly, more because, well, we could be. Some day. I put my hand on his arm and whisper, “Who knows? Maybe, one day, we’ll fall in love like them?”

He whips his head in my direction, and I pull back in shock. “We’ll do what?”

Less sure now, I reply, “Fall in love . . .?”

Yeah, I’m persisting with the lunacy. What can I do? I’m committed. I need to follow through. But really, is it such an outrageous idea my boyfriend could fall in love with me?

“Some day?” His brows knit together, almost forming a perfect mono-brow. It’s not a great look, I’ve got to say.

“Well, not now. Obviously,” I say hastily in a weak attempt to backtrack. “We’ve only been dating for a couple of months. But some day. You know, in the future.” When all he does is gawp at me, those brows of his threatening to meet permanently in the middle, I add, “In the distant future, far, far away, when little green men rule the Earth and we have robots to do the dishes.”

Little green men? Robots? Dishes? What the heck am I talking about?


Author Bio:

Visit kateokeeffe.com and sign up to her newsletter so you never miss out on new releases and great book deals again! Follow her on Bookbub to learn about deals on her books. Just cut and paste this link into your browser: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-o-keeffe

Kate O’Keeffe is a bestselling author of fun, feel-good romantic comedies. She lives and loves in beautiful Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand with her family, two scruffy dogs, and a cat who thinks he’s a scruffy dog too. He’s not: he’s a cat. When she’s not penning her latest story, Kate can be found hiking up hills (slowly), traveling to different countries, and eating chocolate. A lot of it.

Kate is excited to announce her new series High Tea! It’s a spin-off from the bestselling Cozy Cottage Café series, and Book 1 is currently on pre-order, due to be released on September 5th, 2019!

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Giveaway – Till I Found You by Michelle Fernandez #MichelleFernandez @XpressoTours

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Till I Found You
Michelle Fernandez
Publication date: September 3rd 2019
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Former Navy SEAL, Julian “Booker” Cruz, joined an elite security ops agency with one goal in mind: to forget his past. With the overload of work, there’s no time for romance, nor does he want it. His rule—don’t mix business with pleasure. Until one assignment puts that rule to the test. Chloe Channing is not to discover his undercover role as her protective detail from an unknown psychopath. But as their days pass together in tropical paradise, it becomes difficult to keep his desire from compromising everything. Including her safety.

All Chloe wants is to remember, but so much of her memory was lost after her assailant left her unconscious. On a summer trip with friends at her family’s estate in the Bahamas, she yearns for the quiet respite from a previous heartbreak and her tortured nightmares. She never expects a man like Julian to help her find emotional peace and physical healing. But as she falls deeper, her flashbacks slowly come together, and they include glimpses of one handsome, mysterious, yet all-too-familiar face: Julian’s.

Is Chloe’s mind playing tricks on her again… or has she met this man before?

Even if Julian could let go and risk it all, could he ever forgive himself enough to fall in love again?

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Julian wanted to rewind the clock.
Go back to the hilltop where they last made love in the rain. Or go back even further, to the day they first met. Maybe

things would be so different now. The one woman who had helped him with his brokenness, healed the deep scars of his heart and awakened his dark soul now needed to be fixed.

Agony.

The only thing Julian felt was pure hopelessness and he wanted to jump off the ledge. The lead of guilt weighed down his stomach and fire raged within him. His blood-soaked cargo pants and dried blood on his hands were reminders of the fucked-up rescue and recovery that had gone completely wrong.

Waiting.

That’s all he could do. Time had no place within the sterile white walls of the hospital. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like an eternity. Julian paced the laminate floors of the long corridor as the blur of nurses that passed by him started to make him dizzy.

Julian’s boots moved him into the waiting room. He leaned against the doorjamb and scanned the room. Sam’s head lowered, face in his hands as Sage’s arm comforted him. Ezra and Olinda, their foreheads touching, embraced one another for support and comfort.

Guilt stirred in his chest when his eyes met Phoebe’s. Julian swal‐ lowed the lump in his throat and slightly shook his head, sending her unspoken apologies.

Phoebe rose from her chair and put her arms around him. She pulled back slightly and framed his face, wiped a tear that escaped his eye.

“This isn’t your fault,” Phoebe said, her red-rimmed eyes filled with tears.

He shut his eyes. “I fucked up, Phoebe.”

“Hey, look at me. Chloe is the strongest person I know.” Phoebe choked back a sob. They stared at each other for a beat until a soft smile pulled at Phoebe’s lips. “I need you to be strong for her.”

“I can’t lose her… I just found her.”

A momentary silence overlaid the small waiting room. Julian anticipated the doctor’s forthcoming final words. Even now, they tore at him like bear claws shredding his skin. He reached in his pocket, pulled out the turtle charm necklace he had picked up from the shed before getting in the ambulance. Julian stared at the trinket for a moment, hating the lump forming in his throat and the tears blurring his vision. He so badly wanted to see Chloe.

Parallel images collided of Amber and Chloe, knocking his breath loose. The doctor’s words that came out… ‘I’m so sorry for your loss’ hammered his heart when they couldn’t save Amber.

He prayed he wouldn’t hear those same words again. He sent up a silent prayer hoping for some kind of sign that Chloe was going to come out of this.

He needed to remind himself to breathe, to stay strong for her. But it was almost impossible when the woman he loved more than his own life was fighting for her very own. His head pounded as images of her brittle body, the bang of the gun firing one last time, then Chloe falling to the ground—all played in a loop, over and over.

Julian put the necklace back in his front pocket. “Don’t you dare die on me, Chloe,” Julian whispered to himself, letting out a deep breath he didn’t realize he’d held in his lungs.

Author Bio:

Michelle is a wife, mother and an avid reader of multi-genres. She’s always been passionate about reading and impressed by the influence it has on people. Which is why she started writing in the first place. Romance suspense is her most favorite genre. The damsel heroine and the alpha gentleman hero are who she writes about. It started as a hobby. One chapter turned into ten, then a novel was born. Making up worlds and characters for readers to fall in love with, is the most rewarding for her. May her words give you the ‘feels’ and may it be an unputdownable book!

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Giveaway – Boundary by Ebony Olson @Ebony_Olson @XpressoTours

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Boundary
Ebony Olson
Publication date: September 20th 2019
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Vera Cana has given her life to escape her abusive ex. She’s earned her freedom and has the scars to prove it. Now, she’s starting a new life. Purchasing a cottage in a lush forest, she’s ready to live out her days in peace. The goddess has other plans.

If Vera thought by hiding out in her little cottage she could avoid any more packs and their alphas, she was wrong. When her new neighbor knocks on her door, the draw to him is magnetic, but the scars of her past are a barrier higher than the boundary fence between their properties. Dale’s presence causes a heady mix of calm and excitement, which only adds to the potency of his patient, but determined personality. Vera is about to learn a lot about the way packs work, and she’s going to discover how strong she can be.

Nothing takes more inner strength than learning how to trust someone with your heart.

A stand-alone paranormal romance.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

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Author Bio:

Ebony lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, daughter, and six cats. She loves to read fantasy, thrillers, and paranormal romance, spending most of her free time with her nose in a book or writing.

Having always possessed an over-active imagination she spent her younger years regaling friends with fantastic stories, holding her audience captive with the passion and suspense of her characters plights.

Now in adulthood she has numerous published works and shows no signs of stopping her imagination from spreading across as many pages as it can find.

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Giveaway – Fate of Dragons by Alisha Klapheke @alishaKlapheke @XpressoTours

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Fate of Dragons
Alisha Klapheke
(Dragons Rising #1)
Publication date: March 27th 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

An Earth Queen desperate to wake her magic.

An elven prince fighting a ruthless betrayal.

A flood is coming. The Sea Queen has a mad plan to drown the world.

Only the magic of the Earth Queen can stop her. Vahly, the last human, was born to fill that role and wield the power necessary to battle the rising oceans and save the dragons and elves.

But Vahly is the world’s biggest disappointment. She possesses no magic whatsoever.

When she finds an ancient scroll that mentions a human power ritual conducted deep in the homeland of the elves, she gathers her dragon allies and journeys to see the king of that great forest-dwelling race.

Welcomed by a handsome royal cloaked in dark magic, will Vahly find answers or will a twisted and powerful elven lord destroy her chance at saving the world?

Goodreads / Amazon

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Only 99¢ for a limited time!

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Author Bio:

When USA Today Bestselling author Alisha Klapheke isn’t busy creating new fantasy worlds, she teaches martial arts (specifically Muay Thai kickboxing, Krav Maga, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), loves on her two amazing kids, and travels the world with her ninja husband. *Alisha made the list November 2, 2017

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