From his dirty-blond hair and breathtaking smile, to the abs from heaven and the irresistible V in his waistline, everything about Bodi Olympic-gold-medalist Banks screams hot piece of @$$.
Yet there’s more.
Dark shadows lurk behind his soulful, serious eyes.
I’m enamored. He’s captured me.
How can running an art foundation with Bodi Banks turns into a slow-burning, epic romance, even though he tries to push me away at every chance? How can I stay away from a broken, routine-driven man whose soul cries to be forgiven for a crime only he believes he committed? Or is that a lie?
NOW AVAILABLE!
STROKED by Meghan Quinn
Released: July 19, 2016
Cover Designer: Murphy Rae
BLURB:
Reese King: Olympic medalist, underwear model, Greek god.
His body is chiseled from rock, sculpted by the weight room, and refined by water.
On a daily basis his skin is completely bare for everyone to see, tan and defined, only covered up by a minuscule piece of spandex. There is no denying his sex appeal.
I hate to admit it, but I’m head over heels infatuated with him.
There is one HUGE problem though. His achingly gorgeous abs, inked up arm, and cocky swagger belong to my boss, the high-profile, reality star bitch from hell and certified heinous human being, Bellini Chambers.
What I think is going to be an easy job assisting a glorified wench turns into a cluster f*ck of epic proportions.
About the Author:
Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.
Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking.
Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!
AUTHOR ANONYMOUS: A True Story told through the voice of E.K. Blair
(a non-series STAND-ALONE book)
Genre: Romance/Drama/Non-Fiction
Release Date: August 29, 2016
SYNOPSIS:
A TRUE STORY told through the voice of New York Times Bestselling Author, E.K. Blair.
She’s an author.
She’s a mother.
She’s a wife.
She’s a fraud.
A woman marked and bound by her own deceit, this is the astounding tale of how one choice knocked her world from its axis forcing her to battle through a year of scandal and betrayal, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
This is an intoxicatingly risqué stand-alone true story tangled in lust, heartbreak, and contrition.
Everyone is going to be curious about Author Anonymous. I mean, who wouldn’t be; a tell-all about an author’s demise and not knowing who this author is. Anyone who says they aren’t the slightest interested, is full of it. Yes, I am one of the very few who stay away from gossip and drama, but this had my curiosity piqued. But let me tell you, this is one review that will most difficult to write.
Author Anonymous is more or less a partial memoir for this author. It’s really hard to write this review without wanting to get personal and point out parts where there are obvious signs that she ignored due to being caught up in the fantasy. It’s extremely hard for me to see how this author was able to find herself in this situation and that’s where my curiosity came in. But I find her very brave for wanting to talk about this – this is her personal life and how it all fell apart because of her actions. It takes alot of strength and courage to put herself out there like that, especially when I am sure some will figure out who it really is.
E.K. writes this book beautifully. You can depict and see what “Tori” and her husband go through. All the turmoil, emotions and confusion. My heart broke for Landon, Tori’s husband. But I applaud him for not once giving up. There are a few things that he did that I don’t agree with and I think hurt these two working things out quicker but at the same time,Tori didn’t help the situation at all. Tori is confused and caught up in the excitement of the fantasy. Alec is Tori’s drug – an addiction she can’t kick, no matter the consequences.
I am hoping that this book will help this author find her way. It’s not our job as readers to judge her for her actions. It’s our job to let her know that she has us to support her. We may not agree with her actions but she’s human. We all make shit decisions in life but that doesn’t make us a bad person. This is one book that gave me mixed emotions. I am just hoping that one day she finds what she wants out of her life.
From NYT & USA Today bestselling author comes a new Bleeding Stars stand-alone novel…
She is his strength and he is her weakness. And this time he won’t let her go.
Edie Evans is gorgeous.
Sexy.
Kind.
She’s also the definition of off-limits.
But that didn’t stop me from sneaking into her room to comfort her at night.
But guys like me? We destroy everything, so it should have been no surprise when I destroyed us, too.
The night I sent her running, I thought I’d never see her again.
Until I saw her standing like a vision in the crowd.
Austin Stone is dangerous.
Alluring.
Tempting.
He broke my heart and I refused to give him the chance to do it again.
It’s been years since I’ve seen him, and now I can’t do anything but stare at the gorgeous, tattooed man playing onstage. I should run. I know I should. But like a fool, I run straight back to him.
Our desire is overpowering.
Our need unrelenting.
She is my hope.
He is my weakness.
We should have known a passion this intense would burn us right into the ground.
“Meaningful. Mesmerizing. Magnificent…5 but should be 10 beautiful, broken, brilliant, and imperfectly perfect stars .” Karen, Bookalicious Babes Blog
“A beautifully written story about broken hearts and unshakable longing, about second chances and third chances and a whispered hope for a happily ever after. Intensely felt on every level, Edie and Austin’s story will own you.” Vilma, Vilma’s Book Blog
“Beautiful. Sexy. Dripping with tenderness. I felt the emotion in this story all the way to my toes.” Mia Sheridan, NYT Bestselling Author
“6 Stars – Wait is equally devastating and beautiful! A.L. Jackson has a way of pouring words onto a page that makes you crave every piece of a story.” Molly McAdams, NYT Bestselling Author
“Shit,” I hissed, bracing myself against the spray of the icy shards pelting from the shower head.
I sucked in a breath, released it between clenched teeth, and forced myself fully under it.
Head dropped and chest heaving as rivers of ice-cold water slicked down my shoulders and back.
But it did nothing to lessen the need. Gave me no sanity or pacification.
Because all I could think about was the girl on the other side of the door.
My girl.
In my bed.
Wearing just her panties and my shirt.
An angel I wanted to dirty.
I always had.
Love was messy like that.
All of my restraint scattered. I gripped my cock. Squeezed the base. My mouth dropped open at the pressure of my hand against my rigid length.
A fool thinking it might be enough.
Shit.
God, I was a bastard, but there was nothing I could do before I was giving in, leaning forward and bracketing my forearm above my head to hold my weight.
Water pounded down on my head and back while I pounded my fist against my dick.
Trying to keep silent when all I wanted was to moan, teeth digging into my bottom lip as I pictured the girl spread out for me.
My breaths were coming short.
Panted and hard.
I gave into imagining the sounds she would make when I finally got to bury myself in her body.
A soft, soft gasp.
I slowed, trying to convince myself that throaty sound was all in my mind.
Just another part of this fantasy.
Until I heard the small thump against the wall.
Shit.
I mashed my eyes closed, like it might hide me.
Conceal the depravity of my actions after I’d just been comforting her hours before.
Heart thrashing, I turned and moved far enough to peek out the small section where the fabric shower curtain hadn’t been drawn fully closed.
It was just a little sliver that left me exposed.
But it was enough. When I peered out, I was looking right at my girl pressed up against the wall.
She stared right back at me.
And I wanted to be horrified, my mind scrambling to conjure every weak apology I could summon. Ready to fucking grovel to keep her from turning and running once again.
Because that’s exactly what I expected her to do.
But her expression…her expression clutched me in the center of the chest and sent what little brain function I had left stampeding south.
Red, lush lips were parted, her hand pressed to her hollow of her throat, pupils dilated so big that her hooded, cerulean eyes appeared black. Needy breaths were coming at me from that sweet mouth like a goddamned freight train.
Desire swelled in the confines of the too-tight room.
Alive.
She pressed deeper into the wall as if it might support her weakened knees. Head rocked back. Thighs squeezing together.
Motherfuck.
My hand shot to the shower wall to steady myself. “Warning you, Edie, you need to get out of here. Right now.”
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, as well as the newest BLEEDING STARS novels. Watch for the next installments, WAIT and STAY, coming in 2016.
If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
Be sure not to miss new releases and sales from A.L. Jackson – Sign up to receive her newsletter http://bit.ly/NewsFromALJackson or text “jackson” to 96000 to receive short but sweet updates on all the important news.
Whatever you do, never, ever blow your cover in front of
a devil….
I traded my dress shoes for leather boots, my badge for a hog, and my friends for the club. It’s
supposed to be temporary, but if I don’t live, breathe, and bleed Devil’s Pointe MC for even a
second, it’ll all be over.
But one little distraction may prove more powerful than the entire club.
One day, they’ll call me Lilith and bow at my
feet….
Like a weed, I thrive where I’m not supposed to. I stand tall despite my infertile upbringing and
the surrounding hostiles who threaten me every day.
No, “despite” isn’t entirely correct, I do it all to spite them.
I’m a SheDevil and I intend to show them all what it really
means to be a Devil.
And he’s the only one who could have prevented it.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Pact and The Lie comes a new standalone contemporary romance about those McGregor men.
Jessica Charles shouldn’t have even been in London when the unthinkable happened.
She should have been back at home in Edinburgh, perhaps hanging with her boyfriend, having drinks with her sister or doing yoga with her group of friends. She should have been going on in her normal, dependable life as always.
But on that fateful day in August, when a mentally-ill ex-soldier opened fire in public, Jessica’s world changed forever.
Now single and crippled from the gunshot wounds, Jessica finds herself scared and alone, losing faith in herself and humanity with each agonizing moment that passes.
That is until a stranger enters her life. A stranger who makes her live again.
Keir McGregor has always been the strong, silent type. Throw in tall, dark, and handsome and you’ve got pretty much the perfect Scotsman.
Except Keir is anything but perfect. He’s got a past he’s running away from and a guilty conscience he can’t seem to shed. But the more time he spends with Jessica, the more he falls in love with her.
And the more his secret threatens to tear them apart.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he says. “Sit. I’ll get you another drink.”
“It’s getting late,” I say feebly but I sit down anyway, my leg giving a protest of pain.
“You need something for that?” he says, noticing my wince.
“The scotch will do fine,” I tell him quickly, not wanting him to make a fuss. “But really, I should go.”
“Why?” he asks from the kitchen. I hear the top pop off the bottle, the slosh of liquid in the glass. “Where do you have to be?”
I have to think about that for a moment. He comes over and holds out the glass. “I won’t keep you here if you don’t want to be here. But if you do want to be here, you don’t need to make any excuses.”
I take the glass from him, holding it delicately in my fingers. He stands over me, a massive wall, waiting for some kind of response.
“I just…” I begin. “I…” I take a sip for bravery. Swallow. “I’m not very good at this.”
“Good at what?”
“At…this. Being with a man.”
When he doesn’t say anything to that, I look up at him. He’s got a peculiar smile on his face, his brows raised. “You call this being with a man?”
I clear my throat, feeling my cheeks grow hot. “I mean. I’ve told you before –”
“Yes, how you don’t do relationships, how you don’t do sex.”
“I never said I don’t do sex,” I remind him quickly.
His eyes never stop searching my face. “Then what is it? What are you afraid to say?”
I have the sudden urge to flee and I know it must show because he suddenly points at me and says, “Don’t you dare say you have to go again. I want you to go back to what you said, that you’re not good at this. What is this? Us? You and me? There’s nothing mystifying about you and me, Jessica. You know quite well how I feel.”
I stare at him in shock. I do? “How?”
He looks off with an air of impatience. “I invited you to dinner, you turned me down.”
“But then you said just as friends.”
“And I meant it. But there are different types of friends. It’s up to you to decide what kind we are.”
I put my drink down with a clunk. “Holy pressure.” And now it’s not just my face going hot but my entire body, flushed from head to toe.
“You’re on fire, little red,” he says, his gaze skirting over my limbs in such a hungry way I can almost feel them on my skin. “I have to say, I like this look on you. Hot and bothered.”
“Back with the innuendos again,” I comment but my voice is weak.
“No, no innuendos this time. You came looking for me tonight not because you wanted to confess but because you want something from me. What is it? What do you want from me? What do you think I can give you?”
Jesus. This is so utterly unnerving. His words slice right through me, his eyes still peeling under the layers, trying to get at something I’m not even sure of myself.
If I lie, he’ll know. I can only be honest with him.
“I want…” I take in a deep breath, my eyes breaking away. “I want…company.”
“Company?” He sounds surprised.
I nod. “That’s the truth. I’m lonely. And I’m afraid. And I’m tired of being both those things. I want to be with someone who makes me forget who I am. You make me feel fearless in a way I didn’t think possible.”
There. That’s the truth. Most of it. It hangs in the air, thickening the tension like flour to stock.
He sits down next to me, has a mouthful of Scotch. “Wow,” he says, running his hand over the beard on his jaw. “And here I was thinking you wanted my cock.”
I burst out laughing. So does he, a big wonderful bellow. The tension in the room eases up a notch.
“Sorry,” I tell him when I catch my breath. “I guess they can both mean the same thing.”
He sucks in his lip briefly, his eyes taking a lustful turn. “If you want it to.” We stare at each other for a few heavy beats. Then his focus trails back to my gaze and he says, “Why don’t you stay over?”
And there I have it. The chance to know what those full lips would feel like on mine, what his skin would taste like. I swallow hard.
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.
From his dirty-blond hair and breathtaking smile, to the abs from heaven and the irresistible V in his waistline, everything about Bodi Olympic-gold-medalist Banks screams hot piece of @$$.
Yet there’s more.
Dark shadows lurk behind his soulful, serious eyes.
I’m enamored. He’s captured me.
How can running an art foundation with Bodi Banks turns into a slow-burning, epic romance, even though he tries to push me away at every chance? How can I stay away from a broken, routine-driven man whose soul cries to be forgiven for a crime only he believes he committed? Or is that a lie?
BLURB:
Reese King: Olympic medalist, underwear model, Greek god.
His body is chiseled from rock, sculpted by the weight room, and refined by water.
On a daily basis his skin is completely bare for everyone to see, tan and defined, only covered up by a minuscule piece of spandex. There is no denying his sex appeal.
I hate to admit it, but I’m head over heels infatuated with him.
There is one HUGE problem though. His achingly gorgeous abs, inked up arm, and cocky swagger belong to my boss, the high-profile, reality star bitch from hell and certified heinous human being, Bellini Chambers.
What I think is going to be an easy job assisting a glorified wench turns into a cluster f*ck of epic proportions.
About the Author:
Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped.
Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking.
Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze!
Living in a world where I was worth more dead than alive was
a choice. I was a bad man, never claimed to be anything else. I’ve done things
I’m not proud of. Seen things that can’t be unseen. I’ve caused pain that I
can’t undo.
It was all my choice.
Every decision.
Every order.
Right and wrong never mattered.
Until her.
She was under my protection, until she became my obsession.
But who was going to save her…
From. Me. The devil himself.
Fate brought us together. Destiny destroyed us.
I lunged forward, clearing all the contents off the table,
to the floor. The sounds of the glass crashing onto the hardwood was mocking
me… my heart shattering the exact same way.
It was everywhere and all around me.
I couldn’t run.
I couldn’t escape.
I had no one.
I kept moving because I knew once I stopped I would crash,
and possibly never get back up again. I darted around the dining room, my feet
stomping with every step, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Throwing
candles, dishware, and chairs. Flipping the table over. I went after anything I
could find, demolishing the perfect night.
“I hate you! I hate you!” I yelled, punching the mirror that
I caught my reflection in. Not even flinching from the pain. I repeated that
mantra over and over, letting it sink into my pores, and making it become a
part of me. Destroying everything in my path, the future I would never have.
I pulled my hair back, taking in the destructive scene
before me. “Get yourself together,” I rasped, making my way to the bar. Taking
four swigs of whiskey from the head, not bothering with a glass, and repeating
it several times until the bottle was empty, and I felt nothing but the burn
through my body.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed another bottle,
wanting to drown myself in the amber liquid. Leaning my whole body against the
wall, I started sliding down, wallowing in the despair of what my life had
become. I don’t know how long I sat there, drinking my life away when I heard
the front door open, footsteps coming my way.
“Sophia?” I slurred.
A part of me hoped that it was somebody that was coming to
put me out of my misery.
USA Today Bestselling Author of The Good Ol’ Boys Standalone
Series, The VIP Trilogy, Tempting Bad, and Two Sides.
M. Robinson loves to read. She favors anything that has
angst, romance, triangles, cheating, love, and of course sex! She has been
reading since the Babysitters Club and R.L. Stein.
She was born in New Jersey but was raised in Tampa Fl. She
is currently pursuing her Ph.D in psychology, with two years left.
She is married to an amazing man who she loves to pieces.
They have two German Shepherd mixes and a Tabby cat.
✮✮✮ THE SAPPHIRE HEIST is here! The highly anticipated conclusion of New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blakely’s new contemporary romance Jewel Novel series, this enemies-to-lovers series is filled with sex, wit, glamour, and high stakes, with a rugged, ex-military, dirty-talking alpha hero! Don’t miss this explosive and passionate series! ✮✮✮
EXCERPT:
He grabbed her waist and slammed her close. Her breath caught. He nipped her earlobe.
“Admit it,” he growled. “Admit I am masterful at darts. Then, and only then, will I accept your rematch offer.”
She shook her head and made a move to reach for the dart in his hand. Like she was trying to subtly snatch it away. He clamped his palm around it and raised an eyebrow.
“You trying to pickpocket me?”
“If pickpocketing from your hand counts, then yes. I was.”
“You need a lesson in proper pickpocketing then, woman. You’re too obvious. Like you were in the alley earlier today.”
“You’re telling me you know how to pick pockets, too?” She narrowed her eyes, skepticism in her tone as she grabbed her iced tea from the nearby counter and took a drink.
He laughed. “I do. I don’t do it often, but it’s a useful skill.”
She put down the glass, then parked her hands on her hips, hiking up her purse on her shoulder. “Teach me.”
“Can’t really teach you everything in one night, but it’s all about the art of deception,” he said as he led her back to the dartboard. Grabbing a dart from the green felt, he raised it and took aim at the bull’s-eye. Her gaze followed the dart. “That means you need to get the person to look elsewhere, like at the dartboard.”
She nodded and stared at the dartboard. For one second. Two seconds. Three. Then it dawned on her. When she snapped her focus back to him, he brandished her wallet.
“You got that from my purse,” she said, stomping a foot.
“I sure did. But that was the point. To show you how it’s done.”
“OK,” she said, wiggling her fingers. “Let me try.”
He taught her a few basic distraction tricks, and she practiced on him, dipping her hands in his pockets and trying to pilfer his watch. She was no pro, and he was aware of her moves every time. But her technique improved with the brief lesson. However, the constant gliding of her hands into his pockets zapped his focus away from teaching and onto the next phase of tonight.
“That’s all for today’s lesson,” he said, since he had no more interest in being out with her. “Need to get you alone now.”
Her eyes told him she wanted that, too. “Let’s say good night to Marie.”
She’d been busy all evening pulling the tap and pouring drinks, so he drummed his fingertips against the bar, tipped an imaginary hat to her, and waved good-bye. But she beckoned them over. “Hey. You found your sexy fisherman,” Marie said to Steph, flicking her long braid off her shoulder so it hung down her back. She turned to Jake. “And you found my favorite mermaid.”
“We did find each other,” Steph said in a sweet voice that nailed him right in the heart. We found each other.Those words. They pulsed with double meaning.
THE SAPPHIRE AFFAIR & THE SAPPHIRE HEIST are being released by Montlake, which is an Amazon publishing company, and will only be available for sale at Amazon. You can download a free Kindle reading app for any smartphone or tablet here:http://amzn.to/1MIyrHi
**THE SAPPHIRE AFFAIR & THE SAPPHIRE HEIST are available for free on Kindle Unlimited!**
ABOUT THE SAPPHIRE HEIST (Jewel Novel #2):
Keep your lover close and your enemy closer…
After giving in to a fiery night of passion, island adventurer Steph Anderson and bounty hunter Jake Harlowe are back to square one. With millions in stolen jewels at stake, it’s hard for Steph not to question her new partner’s true motives—no matter how sexy he might be. Jake is hungry for more of Steph, but he can sense her growing mistrust, which only fuels his own doubts. Worse, there’s undeniable evidence that someone else is now after the jewels—and that they are both in real danger.
Fighting against their magnetic attraction is a distraction these two can’t afford. In order to survive, they’ll have to pull off one more heist—and trust each other with something even more precious than jewels: their hearts.
Since self-publishing her debut romance novel CAUGHT UP IN US three years ago, Lauren Blakely has sold more than 1 million books. She is known for her sexy contemporary romance style that’s full of heat, heart and humor. A devout fan of cake and canines, Lauren has plotted entire novels while walking her four-legged friends. She lives in California with her family. With ten New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than fifty times. Her bestselling series include Sinful Nights, Seductive Nights, No Regrets, Caught Up in Love, and Fighting Fire as well as standalone romantic comedies like BIG ROCK and MISTER O, which were both instant New York Times Bestsellers. In the fall she’ll release WELL HUNG, another romantic comedy. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter:laurenblakely.com/newsletter.
If you’re a fan of Dannika’s Dark Mageri Series, you may have fallen for Simon!
A cheeky, sexy and mysterious Mage that can make almost anything into a sexual innuendo!
In RISK, the highly anticipated novel , we finally get to discover more about Simon!Dive in the series filled with great characters, brilliant stories and a breath of fresh air in the PNR genre that is the Mageri World!
Risk
(A Mageri World Novel)
By Dannika Dark
Blurb:
Simon Hunt is a masterful Mage when it comes to knives, solving puzzles, and women. But when a Mageri Councilman asks for a personal favor, his skills are put to the test. He reluctantly accepts the impossible job of training a young Learner who is beyond anyone’s help. She’s beautiful, cunning, and disabled. If he succeeds, he’ll receive a hefty paycheck. But if he fails, more is at stake than merely his reputation.
A compelling tale about two lost souls with dark secrets and the unique connection they share. Simon is her last hope… and perhaps she is his.
What happens when a game of chance becomes a fight for survival?
She removed her hand and petted his stomach as if he were a docile panther. Simon discovered restraint he never knew he had.
Ella’s fingers moved down and fondled a tiny bulge in his pocket. “What’s this?”
Simon carried a miniature chess piece in his pocket—a queen to be exact. “Love, that’s not the piece I want you to stroke.”
She looked up at him, her lips pursing together. “Shhh.”
Women never took control of Simon this way, and just the thought of it made him so weak with lust that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold out for the actual act.
Ella went down on her knees and pressed her lips against the stretched leather covering his erection. He nearly lost it. Images flooded his mind of sliding somewhere warm and wet. Suddenly his throat went dry. He flattened his palms against the wall behind him, intoxicated by her unpredictable nature. There was no sense in taking over and trying to dominate her in the bedroom; her needs were nonnegotiable.
Check out this fabulous Audio Clip!
About the Author
Dannika Dark is the USA Today Bestselling Author of Urban Fantasy Romance and Paranormal Romance. Her books have sold more than 1 million copies worldwide, and she is a 2016 Audie Awards finalist.
Dannika was born on a military base in the U.S. and spent her youth traveling abroad. She developed an interest writing poetry and song lyrics early on, eventually gravitating toward a job that involved writing procedural training documentation. In her spare time, she wrote novels before she decided to pursue a career in publishing.
In addition to writing about supernatural worlds, Dannika is passionate about graphic design and creates all her own covers and series art. When not writing, she enjoys indie music, movies, reading, Tex-Mex, strawberry daiquiris, heaps of chocolate, and unleashing her dark side.
All of her published books to date are written in the same universe and contain material suitable for adults only.
“For me, writing is all about blending genres to break out of the confines of predictability, but it’s what I love to do.”
Danni
You can find Dannika at
To receive exclusive content and be the first to know about upcoming releases, please sign up to receive her newsletter.
“Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” Or so the book of Corinthians tells us.
Alanna Anderson does not agree with this sentiment. At the tender age of thirteen, Alanna believes that she has learned all she needs to know about love. Love is fleeting. Love is callous. Love is a lie. Growing up in the rough streets of South End, Pennsylvania, Alanna Anderson knows a thing or two about guarding her heart. Although there is a boy that vies for her attention, Alanna has no interest. She surrounds herself with the people she loves best, and immerses herself in her music and her love of literature. But one winter day, two boys forever changed Alanna’s life. One cemented Alanna’s belief that love was cruel. Another sought to prove her wrong.
Cris Serrano is new to town. Moving to the United States from Portugal, he is stepping into a world he in unfamiliar with. He is not fearful, though. Stepping forth with confidence, Cris is excited for what this new experience will hold, leaving behind a past he’d rather forget. Upon his first day at Henshaw Elementary, Cris meets Alanna Anderson and sparks fly. Their connection is one that will forever rewrite the map of their destinies – two supernovas colliding amidst a darkened sky. Not everyone believes that Alanna and Cris belong together, though.
Damien Foley has loved Alanna Anderson from the day he first set eyes upon her. Though she ignores his advances, Damien has hope that Alanna will open her heart to him. But when Cris Serrano comes to town, everything changes. Alanna gazes at Cris the way Damien wishes she would look at him. Watching her fall in love in Cris was more than Damien’s mind could take. As Alanna and Cris are enveloped in the joy of young love, a storm is brewing. With Damien’s attraction to Alanna only intensifying with each unrequited sentiment, an obsession was born.
Young love does not come easy in this gritty, romantic suspense novel. In the Phoenix Saga, they love hard, they fight hard, and the stakes are high as teens struggle to step over the echelon of adulthood.
There will always be books out there that will touch a deep part of you and The Phoenix is one of those books. I love the meaning behind this book and the story Addison delivered.
The Phoenix is told in third person POV, which is sometimes a bit hard for me to get into. But with this book and having so many characters and needing to view things from all the different ways, it’s the only way for this book to work. And Addison wrote it very well. My only small gripe is that sometimes that language didn’t fit the age of the character and made it slightly harder to believe their ages. Aside from that -a beautiful story.
This story surrounds Alanna and her friends. I won’t go into details as to what happens because I feel that takes away from the excitement and wonderment of the story. What these young kinds go through will baffle you. But what will amaze you is the strong depth their friendship goes to. They stand side by side and have each others’ backs through good and bad. They’re family.
I have quite a lot of quotes from this book that I absolutely love and will keep with me forever. But one in particular is poem that Alanna wrote. It’s a bit long, but says so much more.
“A year of tumult. An age of irritation. Heart’s bitter contempt, a high security prison. A prior love turned exceptional fiend. An extraordinary façade. You’re not all what you seemed. Deceit in your mind. Venom on your tongue. The maddening ache of anger. A howl building in my lungs. Stop this masquerade. Discard your mask! Your two faces have fulfilled their task! I believe in the myth. I trusted in a lie. Be gone! Bury this deceit to die!
A kaleidoscope mind. A battleground heart. Run for cover. Too late – torn apart. An era of disillusion. A moment of doubt. A flicker of truth; your misdeeds I must surmount. I throw my hands up to the wind. What’s left to say? There’s nothing left to give. Took my security. Fractured my soul. Pillaged and plundered til there was nothing left at all! But wait…what’s this? A faintly beating heart. Mangled and bloody, but still holds a charge. Fighting against the current, a tremendous wave. Your violence and insanity…..It’s my own life I must save. Birdcage, release me! Break these bonds that hold me. Captor, forget me. Set me soul free! Forget the words on your tongue. Rid my face from your brain. My life belongs to me….It was never yours to claim!”
Addison has way with words that gut a person. They make you think, they make you feel, they come alive on the pages. I loved this story! I look forward to reading more from Addison.
Addison Kline is an International Best-Selling Author who resides in Pennsylvania with her family. When she is not writing, she is immersing herself in music, reading to her heart’s content, traveling with her family, or binging on her favorite shows on Netflix that include Wentworth, Bloodlines and Sons of Anarchy.
Addison is a member of the International Thriller Writers Association and while she loves to write in a variety of genres, Addison always says “mystery is her game.” Some of her other favorite sub-genres to write include romantic suspense, psychological thrillers, crime and mafia thrillers.
Some of Addison’s greatest influences to date include Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, Gillian Flynn, Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen & James Patterson.
From NYT & USA Today bestselling author comes a new Bleeding Stars stand-alone novel…
She is his strength and he is her weakness. And this time he won’t let her go.
Edie Evans is gorgeous.
Sexy.
Kind.
She’s also the definition of off-limits.
But that didn’t stop me from sneaking into her room to comfort her at night.
But guys like me? We destroy everything, so it should have been no surprise when I destroyed us, too.
The night I sent her running, I thought I’d never see her again.
Until I saw her standing like a vision in the crowd.
Austin Stone is dangerous.
Alluring.
Tempting.
He broke my heart and I refused to give him the chance to do it again.
It’s been years since I’ve seen him, and now I can’t do anything but stare at the gorgeous, tattooed man playing onstage. I should run. I know I should. But like a fool, I run straight back to him.
Our desire is overpowering.
Our need unrelenting.
She is my hope.
He is my weakness.
We should have known a passion this intense would burn us right into the ground.
I gripped the railing as if it might propel me forward. Instead, my footsteps faltered and slowed. I stood facing away, my back heaving as his consuming presence swarmed over me from behind.
“Please.” This time it was a whisper. A plea.
Sincere.
Slowly I turned.
Drawn.
He’d always been my weakness.
Austin stood at the end of the walkway, just outside the reach of the lights, his body obscured in shadows.
Even larger than I’d imagined when I’d first seen him up on stage.
So foreign.
So familiar.
My heart ached. Because I was looking at the boy who’d been my best friend. The one person who I’d thought would completely understand. One who wouldn’t judge or make it hurt more than it already did.
He’d been my safety.
My haven.
Until he’d dragged me right back into hell.
“Why are you here?” My words cracked. “H-h-how…how did you find me?”
I saw the shake of his head, and he took a single step forward, out of the shadows and into the glow of the single lamp attached high on the exterior wall that lit the way.
It hit him like a spotlight.
The boy was so beautiful.
It was a threatening kind of beauty, a whorl of mystery and pain, sharp lines and corded muscle.
It almost dropped me to my knees.
He fisted his hands at his sides. The question was strained, hard as it pressed from his mouth. “You believe in fate, Edie?”
Old grief I’d bottled for so long burst. It came out as some kind of maniacal cry. Incredulous. Oozing disbelief. “After everything that happened…that’s what you’re going to ask me?”
“Edie…I—”
“Do you have any idea how badly you hurt me?” I cut him off, my own hands fisting as I took a single step forward. “The damage you caused? Careless words, Austin. So fucking careless, thrown out there without a single thought to the repercussions, without any consideration of how they would affect me. How they would change my life. You promised.” My brow twisted with the accusation. “And now you have the nerve to stand there and ask me if I believe in fate?”
I swallowed hard, shook my head. “You can go to straight to hell, Austin Stone.”
He laughed, but there was zero humor behind it. “Come on, Edie. You can do better than that, can’t you? Considering you know hell is where I’ve been all along, and you and I both know I deserve so much worse. And yeah…those words were reckless, but you know they weren’t heedless. You couldn’t expect me to just stand there. Not with him. Not with what he was saying. Implying. I couldn’t.” The last cracked on the emphasis.
I felt as if every cell in my body was being crushed. Squeezed so tight there was no chance but for everything to implode.
“And because you lost it, I lost it all. You. My home. My future.”
His big hands fisted. “I know. I…I fucked it up, Edie. Warned you, I always fuck it up.”
But what he failed to say was he’d promised he wouldn’t fuck it up with me.
I couldn’t tell if I was relieved or terrified when Jed suddenly rounded the corner. His sister, Blaire, was hot on his heels.
“Edie,” Jed gushed out in relief when he saw me. He came to a stop a few steps behind Austin.
As if he’d just stepped into the bristling intensity and it tripped up his feet.
The stand-off.
The war.
Austin standing there? I knew that’s exactly what this was going to be.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jed demanded. His voice twisted into a threat. He glared at the back of Austin’s head, worried eyes flicking to me, hardening when they snapped back to Austin.
Blaire tugged at his arm. “Jed…I told you to give her a minute. Sometimes you need to let people sort out their own issues.”
Jed just grunted and shrugged off her arm.
Refusing to budge.
Austin swung his head to look behind him. When he did, his face shifted to the side, all those hard, beautiful lines exposed in profile, his expression winding into a bitter sneer. “Nah, man. All’s good here. Just telling an old friend hi. Isn’t that right, Edie?”
Aggression curled between them.
Alive and raging.
Jed was a burly, beefy, hulk of a man, a full beard covering most of his face, his brown hair cut short at the sides and longer on top.
Had I ever imagined him and Austin going toe to toe, I would have put all my money on Jed.
Now I wasn’t so sure.
Jed lifted his chin, as if for the moment he was standing down, turning to me as his tone softened. “You okay, Edie?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Lie. Lie. Lie.
I was shaken to my core.
“I just want to go home.” It left me on a desperate breath.
Jed pushed around Austin and stalked my way. “All right, let’s get you out of here.”
As she passed by Austin, Blaire cast a searching glance in his direction, before her attention flickered over to me, a ton of worried questions moving across her expression.
Questions I didn’t know if I had the strength to answer.
With an arm wound around my shoulder, Jed spun me, breaking the spell Austin had me under, and tucked me into his side.
Protecting and shielding.
He began to lead me away, down the planks and toward his car waiting in the parking lot out front.
With each step we took, I could feel the heat of Austin’s stare. That burning intensity I wasn’t sure I could ever escape.
The hurt and hatred.
It was a hatred I couldn’t tell who it was directed at.
If it was aimed at him or me or the rest of the world that had threatened to choke the life out of us.
The world we were supposed to take on together.
Just as we started to round the corner, I paused because I just couldn’t stop myself, turned to look back at the man who stood there staring back at me.
Emotion gripped his expression just as tight as the clench of his fists.
Hard and tortured.
As if I was the one inflicting the pain.
I choked down the sorrow that rose like a cyclone, spinning and spinning, whipping up the old affection that longed for that soft, understanding boy to take me in his arms and sing in my ear.
Dangerous.
I searched inside myself for the shelter that secured my heart. The flimsy cover I wore that just barely kept me together. I forced myself to speak the words I knew would drive him away, as much of a lie as they were. “And for the record…no, Austin, I definitely don’t believe in fate.”
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, as well as the newest BLEEDING STARS novels. Watch for the next installments, WAIT and STAY, coming in 2016.
If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
Be sure not to miss new releases and sales from A.L. Jackson – Sign up to receive her newsletter http://bit.ly/NewsFromALJackson or text “jackson” to 96000 to receive short but sweet updates on all the important news.
From NYT & USA Today bestselling author comes a new Bleeding Stars stand-alone novel…
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
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.
About Lauren Blakely:
