Thursday, April 26, 2018

#ParanormalRomance #blurb and #excerpt spotlight on Bastion by Rita finalist Marie Johnston @mjohnstonwriter

Let me introduce top author, Marie Johnston, an award-winning writer of paranormal and contemporary romance, and a RITA® Finalist. Marie decided to pursue her passion for writing and traded in her lab coat for a laptop to write her first book ever, Fever Claim. She lives in the upper Midwest with her husband, four kids, and old kitty. Other than hanging out with her family, Marie enjoys reading, movie dates with her hubby, getting outside on sunny days, and the all too rare - girls' night out.

Now for the spotlight-- Bastian by Marie Johnston, book 6 of the New Vampire Disorder series. 
Blurb:


Born into wealth and privilege, Ophelia knows better than anyone the rot that hides at the top. That’s because she’s made it her job to clean up the filth. So when the butler of a prominent vampire family shows up on her doorstep, pleading for sanctuary for him and his employers’ teenage scion, she expects nothing but tarnished silver.



Bastian has long since lost his belief that those who rule his people ever deserved the privilege, but now he must turn to one of the elite to save the girl he thinks of as his daughter. Yet while Ophelia’s ideologies chafe, she’s different. He also knows better than anyone how betrayal destroys, and why she’s steeled herself against everyone, including him.



Together, Bastian and Ophelia must hunt the demons that threaten their race, but their class differences—and their dangerous chemistry—threaten to topple their partnership. If they can’t work together, the demons will conquer all, starting with Bastian’s innocent charge.




Excerpt:


Ophelia strode away, expecting them to follow.
“She’s no threat to you,” he murmured to the girl, shuffling behind her.
No threat? Ophelia had her back to them. They couldn’t see her lips twist in a disgusted sneer. No threat. Why? Because she was so much smaller than the already statuesque teenager? Or because she’d obviously turned her back on her prime family and their power along with it?
Her weapons weren’t compensation for anything. They were an extension of her personality. But she wouldn’t expect a favored butler to understand.
Bastian’s pained grunt squelched her ire. Maybe she should offer to lend a hand. She could fireman-carry Bastian to the infirmary. Though his knuckles and toes might drag on the floor, because even hunched and drawn in on himself, he was a big man.
To be fair, most males of her species were sizeable. Vampires spawned supermodels and Magic Mike extras. Bastian would probably measure up to the rest of the males on her team, despite being born of common blood.
Good genetics, and his parents had nourished him well.
The familiar simmer of resentment flared in her gut. She stuffed it down like she’d done for the last 111 years.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

#ContemporaryRomance #RomanticSuspense Spotlight on #newrelease The Case of the Desperate Doctor by USA Today Bestselling Author Jacqueline Diamond @jacquediamond.

 Please welcome USA Today Best Selling author, Jacqueline Diamond. My spotlight is on The Case of the Desperate Doctor!

Blurb:
Two women are dead, and Dr. Eric Darcy desperately seeks answers for them. Haunted by the loss of his wife, he discovers she was linked to a woman doctor who has just died. Was it suicide or murder? His quest for the truth drives him to Israel and back to his small town in California, where he faces a shocking climax. Join Dr. Darcy on a journey to emotional healing as old secrets are revealed in the third Safe Harbor Medical Mystery by USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Diamond. Available for preorder now. On sale date May 15. Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJWBVL6.
Bio:
USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Diamond has published more than a hundred titles, including the Safe Harbor Medical® mysteries The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet, The Case of the Surly Surrogate and The Case of the Desperate Doctor. A former Associated Press reporter and TV columnist, Jackie received a career achievement award from Romantic Times. Learn more about her mysteries, medical romances, Regency romances and romantic comedies at www.jacquelinediamond.net.
Short excerpt from The Case of the Desperate Doctor:
“I think I might have killed her.”
It takes a lot to stop a forkful of food from reaching my mouth. Around me, the noise of the hospital cafeteria faded and, with a bite of chicken poised in midair, I focused on the rangy, dark-haired man seated across the table.
Like me, Dr. Jeremiah Schwartz was an obstetrician-gynecologist. Unlike me, he was a card-carrying weirdo and, for me personally, a decades-long annoyance who imitated me at every step. Among recent developments, he’d bought a car identical to mine, leased an office near mine in the medical building next to the hospital, and taken it upon himself to join me for lunch whenever possible. His unpredictable comments ranged from intriguing to, as had just occurred, bizarre.
There was little doubt who “she” referred to. On this Tuesday afternoon, the staff was abuzz with word that Dr. Alison Abrams had been found dead in her bathtub the previous day, and with speculation as to whether her death had been an accident or suicide. The police were, as usual, keeping a lid on the investigation.
An ob-gyn with admitting privileges here at Safe Harbor Medical Center, Alison had maintained a private office in nearby Newport Beach. Until about a year and a half earlier, Jeremiah had worked with her and another doctor. Other than that, I wasn’t aware of any connection between them.
As I mulled his statement, my fork resumed its journey to my mouth. The absence of others at our table was fortunate. They might have overreacted, or else considered this a bad joke. Jeremiah never joked.
—end of excerpt—
Thank you for doing this!
Jackie
USA Today bestselling author of the Safe Harbor Medical Mysteries

Monday, April 23, 2018

#RomanticSuspense #doglovers #newrelease Spotlight on Second Chance Soldier, Sizzling Days of Danger, introducing the K-9 Ranch rescue series by Linda O. Johnston @lindaojohnston

Calling all dog lovers! Please welcome talented author, Linda O. Johnston, and her brand new release, 



Blurb:

Sizzling Days of Danger... 
Introducing the K-9 Ranch Rescue Series
Devastated after her father’s murder, Amber Belott wants to keep his legacy alive by saving his K-9 ranch. Her first move? Hiring Evan Colluro, a former military K-9 trainer, who impresses—and attracts—her. If only she weren’t his boss…and his past didn’t trouble him. Evan joins Amber in investigating. But when chaos erupts, it threatens all that’s drawing them together.


Bio:  

Linda O. Johnston, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, currently writes the K-9 Ranch Rescue miniseries for Harlequin Romantic Suspense as well as a paranormal romance miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne about Alpha Force, a covert military unit of shapeshifters.  She also writes the Barkery & Biscuits Mystery Series for Midnight Ink, and has written the Superstition Mysteries for Midnight Ink, and the Pet Rescue Mystery Series and Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime.  And all her current stories involve dogs.



Linda O! Johnston
www.LindaOJohnston.comBAD TO THE BONE, A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery
PROTECTOR WOLF, Harlequin Nocturne
SECOND CHANCE SOLDIER, Harlequin Romantic Suspense

Sunday, April 22, 2018

#Scifi #romance spotlight with burb and #excerpt -- Aydarr, a Badari Warriors novel -- from USA Today Best Selling Author Veronica Scott @vscotttheauthor


Please welcome Veronica Scott! Today I have my spotlight on

Sectors New Allies Series Book 1

By

Veronica Scott

The Blurb: Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway?  Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

This is the first book in a new scifi romance series and each novel has a satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine, not a cliffhanger. Some overarching issues do remain unresolved in each book since this is a series but romance always wins the day in my novels!

The excerpt:

Why am I lying face down on the wet grass in the rain?

Jill rolled over, putting a hand to her forehead in an attempt to quell a ferocious headache. Opening her eyes gingerly, she blinked at the vividly colored pink, purple and blue leaves on the tree above her, which certainly had never grown on Amarcae 7. She’d been all around her home colony on various repair jobs, and nothing there had riotous leaves in these colors, much less with spikes at the tips. As she watched, one of the leaves snapped into a tight roll to capture a slow moving insect.

“Thank the Lords of Space I’m too big a bite.” Wary, nauseous, she sat up, swaying a bit, and examined her unfamiliar surroundings. She was in the midst of an old growth forest, with other forms of vegetation besides the carnivorous trees but nothing recognizable.

A loud roar in the distance gave her the shivers, and she forced herself to stand, staggering a few feet to lean on a less colorful tree’s broad trunk to stay upright. Despite the rain, her mouth was dry, and she had a hard time swallowing. “What the seven hells?”

Her mind was curiously blank, no memory of how she’d gotten to this place, or what had happened in the last few hours. She guessed it might be late afternoon here, from the glimpse she got of the white sun above the horizon, before the clouds drifted in front of the orb again. She refused to contemplate the fact that the star providing heat and light to her colony was yellow. If the sun here was white hot, the reality of where she stood, lost in the galaxy, was terrifying.

She remembered eating dinner in her small modular house on the edge of the colony, falling asleep watching an adventure trideo she’d seen a hundred times then…nothing.

                “And now I’m here.” She took a closer look at her left arm and did a double take. A black bracelet she’d never seen before was solid against her skin just above the wrist, with no visible hinge or fastening. As she gawked at it, prying at the edges in an increasingly desperate attempt to make the band move, flickers of red and yellow pulsed inside the cool, hard surface. The bracelet and what it might mean scared her more than the loss of short term memory or even the unknown sun above her.

                The roar came again, closer, and was answered by another. Something hunting me maybe?  Distracted from the ominous mystery of the bracelet, she was briefly tempted to try climbing the tree, but the lightheadedness persisted. Also, the smooth trunk didn’t offer anything in the way of handholds. She pushed off, realizing she was barefoot, wearing her short, pink-and-black nightgown, molded to her body by the rain. Lingerie was her secret luxury after a day spent in technician’s coveralls, but certainly not suited to this experience.

                Am I dreaming? She paused, gazing at the sky and pushing her damp hair off her face. The shower had tapered off and now the sun was shining but an ominous gray storm front was advancing. A bolt of lightning arced across the sky, and Jill broke into a zigzag run, forcing her body to respond to her terror. Standing anywhere close to a giant tree in a thunder storm was a recipe for disaster.

I’m in a nightmare, not a dream, but it’s all too real.


Buy on US Amazon--
https://www.amazon.com/Aydarr-Badari-Warriors-Romance-Sectors-ebook/dp/B0785JRRJ9
Author Bio and Links:



USA Today Best Selling Author

“SciFi Encounters” columnist for the USA Today Happy Ever After blog

 Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own stories.

Seven time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job, not her romances!

 She read the part of Star Trek Crew Member in the audiobook production of Harlan Ellison’s “The City On the Edge of Forever.”



Wednesday, April 11, 2018

#BookQW #Tirgearr #eroticromance word is important. Dr. Carlos Montoya knows a person's name is the most important word to them. She accuses him of "being a salesman."

Book Quote Wednesday's word is important.  Here's a conversation from One Night in Havana-- two marine biologists have research in common, but drat.  They're competing for the same grant. She thinks he's an opportunist.


His coal-black eyes widened as he gazed from her head down to the tiny straps around her ankles as if she wore high heels and nothing else. “You give off a Barbie doll image,” he replied and stood up.

“Huh?”

“Where’s Ken, anyway? Kenneth Morton. He came with you to the talks in Antarctica. Five years ago.” He grinned, and the mortification in her belly gave way to a longing which she had no business feeling toward her competitor.

“Ken and I broke up.” She hesitated for a moment. “You have a gift for remembering names. Like a salesman.”

“A person’s name is, to that person, the most important and sweetest sound. Back then I introduced myself to Ken in the men’s room.”

“I remember now. Didn’t you give a talk on a specialized pigment in the octopus?”

“Ahh, si.” He splayed his fingers over his chest. “A pigment in their blood is—”

 “—called hemocyanin. Turns their blood blue and helps them survive subfreezing temperatures. Were you awarded something?”

“The antifreeze protein grant? No. It went to a deep-diving photographer. He wasn’t chicken about getting lost or trapped under the ice.”

She slid from her stool and strutted around, jutting her chin in and out like a chicken. “Bock, bock, bock, bock, bock, begowwwwk.”

He chuckled. “Cute chicken dance. Very cute in that skimpy black dress.”
Her cheeks heated, and she clutched her necklace. He’d seen plenty of women

#BookQW word is DRINK-- excerpt from Unholy Alliance, a #Tirgearr Publishing #RomanticSuspense --

Book quote Wednesday's word is drink.   Here's how we play it-- find the word in an excerpt.  Below in Unholy Alliance , the...