The Picky Bitches Book Blog!: September 2014

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

NEW RELEASE! Keep Me (Twist Me, #2) by Anna Zaires

Title: Keep Me (Twist Me, #2)

Author: Anna Zaires

Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Genre: Dark Erotic Romance

Synopsis

Abducted at eighteen. Held captive for 15 months. It reads like one of those headlines. And yes, I did it. I stole her. Nora, with her long dark hair and silky skin. She’s my weakness, my obsession. I’m not a good man. I never pretended to be one. She can love me, but she can’t change me. I can, however, change her. My name is Julian Esguerra, and Nora is mine to keep. ***Keep Me is the sequel to Twist Me, told from Nora & Julian’s POV.***

Twist Me (Twist Me, #1)

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Keep Me (Twist Me, #2)

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About the Author

Anna Zaires fell in love with books at the age of five, when her grandmother taught her to read. She wrote her first story shortly thereafter. Since then, she has always lived partially in a fantasy world where the only limits were those of her imagination. Currently residing in Florida, Anna is happily married to Dima Zales (a science fiction and fantasy author) and closely collaborates with him on all their works.

After graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in Economics, Anna spent eight years on Wall Street analyzing stocks and writing research reports. In 2013, she became a full-time author, pursuing her lifelong dream of writing romance novels.

Dima Zales is the love of her life and a huge inspiration in all aspects of her writing. Every book Anna writes is a product of their unique collaborative process.

In addition to reading and writing, Anna enjoys drinking tea (coconut oolong, anyone?), watching addictive TV shows, and discussing book ideas during long walks with her amazing husband.

She loves hearing from her readers, so please don't hesitate to contact her through her website or connect with her on Facebook, where she hangs out way too often. Also, please visit her husband and collaborator, Dima Zales, at www.dimazales.com and check out their fantasy & science fiction books.

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COVER REVEAL! Promise to Marry by Jessica Wood

PROMISE TO MARRY

November 16

Special Pre-Order Price

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Blurb

We were best friends since as early as I could remember. We grew up together. We were next door neighbors. We shared each other's deepest secrets. When I was thirteen, we made a pact: if we were still single by the time we were 30, we'd marry each other.

Today was my thirtieth birthday. I was single. I knew he was single too.

But we were no longer best friends, and a part of me knew that he hated me.

RELEASE BLITZ!! Sweeter Than Sin (Secrets & Shadows, #2) by Shiloh Walker

Title: Sweeter Than Sin (Secrets & Shadows, #2)

Author: Shiloh Walker

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: September 30, 2014

Buy The Book

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Synopsis

CAN’T FORGET THE PAIN

It took years for Adam to stop drowning his regrets in alcohol, and running the local bar doesn’t make it any easier—especially not when everyone he knows gathers there to discuss the shocking allegations that have shattered his hometown. When another murder rocks sleepy Madison to its core, it becomes chillingly clear that even more vicious wounds are waiting to be exposed.

WON’T RESIST THE PLEASURE Nothing is sacred anymore, and no one is safe, least of all the mystery woman who shows up in town out of the blue, looking like every fantasy Adam’s ever had. She may have her own dangerous secrets, but she can’t ignore the urgent heat between them any more than he can. As a killer’s quest for vengeance explodes into violence, Adam is tempted to lose himself in the delicious promise of her body—until he realizes he’ll risk anything if she’ll give him her heart…in Sweeter than Sin by Shiloh Walker.

About The Author

Shiloh Walker is an award-winning writer…yes, really! She’s also a mom, a wife, a reader and she pretends to be an amateur photographer. She published her first book in 2003. Her newest series, Secrets and Shadows, launched with Deeper than Need, followed by Sweeter than Sin and Darker than Desire. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and urban fantasy under the name J.C. Daniels.

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Excerpt

“I think right now the one thing you need to do is sleep, darlin’.” He nuzzled her neck, pressing his lips where it curved into her shoulder. “It’s late and you never look like you sleep as well as you should. Tomorrow is soon enough for you to worry about how somebody else’s tragedy has to ruin your life.” “It’s already ruined mine.” Slowly, she turned around and lifted her hands, curling them in the soft, worn material of his shirt, pressing her head against his chest. The smell of him flooded her head. Warm man, something spicy—the soap he wore or aftershave—she liked it. Rubbing her cheek against him, she murmured, “It’s ruined my life for years and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to let it ruin my life anymore. That’s why I’m trying to figure out what to do next.” “I already told you. Sleep.” He rubbed his lips against hers and then said quietly, a thread of steel in his voice, “Tomorrow, we find answers. For now, though…” He slid his hands down her back, cupped them around her hips. He boosted her up and when she twined her legs around him, it was a sweet, sweet bliss. “Maybe the answer to that is think about you. You’ve lived your life day by day, always thinking about keeping your secrets. We need to figure out how you can reclaim your life, but you can’t do that in the dead of night. So for now…think about you. What you need.” He dipped his head and caught her lower lip between his, bit her lightly. “What do you need?” A slow shudder wracked her body and he decided he liked it. As he lifted his head to peer down into her eyes, she stared up at him, her eyes cloudy and heated. “Are you suggesting that maybe the answer to this lies in getting naked?”

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Monday, 29 September 2014

COVER REVEAL! Point of Freedom (Nordic Lords MC, #3) by Stacey Lynn

Title: Point of Freedom (Nordic Lords MC, #3)

Author: Stacey Lynn

Release Date: October 23, 2014

Cover Designer: Qdesign Amy Queau

Synopsis

Hatred. Desire. Broken Dreams. Jules McAllister has loved and lost. She experienced the gut wrenching pain of grief after her boyfriend, Scratch, a member of the Nordic Lords MC, died on the same night that she told him they were going to have a child. Grief stricken and destroyed, she left Jasper Bay, unable to tell anyone the truth of what really happened that fateful night. When her childhood friend, Olivia needs her, Jules realizes it’s time to return home and give her daughter what she wants most – a family. But Jules didn’t count on the tumultuous emotions she would feel around Scratch’s brooding and angry brother, Jaden. Jaden has vowed to never forgive Jules for, what he feels is her role his brother’s death. Being face to face with Jules again, who is now a mother to a young child, he finds that his anger hasn’t waned and swears to have nothing to do with mom or child. But how can he reconcile the burning fury in his soul with the irrational urge to touch her? To taste her? To own her completely? Can wounded hearts that still bleed ever be healed? And can two people broken by their pasts find freedom from their pain in each other? Or will a night of passion destroy them both?

Point of Return (Nordic Lords MC, #1)

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Point of Redemption (Nordic Lords MC, #2)

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About the Author

Amazon Bestselling Author of the Just One Song series, Don't Lie to Me, Remembering Us and the Nordic Lords MC series. I am a wife, a mom, and a writer. I can often be found curled up on the couch with a good book, or obsessively eating Skittles in a very complicated and organized manner. No joke.

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COVER REVEAL! Forbidden Flaws by Pepper Winters

Title: Forbidden Flaws

Author: Pepper Winters

This is a FULL length novel with the first part of the book to be released November 10, 2014 as part of OWNED: An Alpha Anthology

She’s forbidden. Saffron Carlton is the darling of the big screen, starlet on the red carpet, and wife of mega producer Felix Carlton. Her life seems perfect with her overflowing bank balance, adoring fans, and luxury homes around the world. Everyone thinks they know her. But no one truly does. The silver limelight is tainted the day the couple announce their divorce.
He’s flawed. Raised in squalor, fed on violence and poverty, Cas Smith knows the underbelly of the world. He’s not looking for fame or fortune. He’s looking for a job to get him the hell away from the danger of illegal fighting, and comes face to face with the woman who ran all those years ago. Unable to turn down her job offer, he agrees to be her bodyguard and personal trainer, all while she hides her secrets. He had no intention of letting her back into his heart. But neither of them were prepared for what happens when forbidden and flawed collide —fracturing the world they know, changing the rules forever.

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OWNED: An Alpha Anthology

Prepare to be Owned... Lose yourself in this collection of never before seen novellas from eleven best selling authors from around the globe. And the best part - they contain controlling alphas, feisty females and story lines that will have you holding your breath.

Pre-Order OWNED today!

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About the Author

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Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero, the better, and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex... her books have sex. She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends.

Her Dark Erotica books include:

Tears of Tess (Monsters in the Dark #1)

Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)

Twisted Together (Monsters in the Dark #3)

Debt Inheritance (Indebted Series)

Her Grey Romance books include:

Destroyed

You can stalk her here

If you would like to be the first to know of upcoming releases please fill in her newsletter (Pepper promises to never spam or chat aimlessly: http://bit.ly/YrpOsO

REVIEW The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Buy It Here!

Synopsis

When the redoubtable Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on business, he leaves his only daughter Sophy with his sister in Berkeley Square. Newly arrived from her tour of the Continent, Miss Sophia Stanton-Lacy invites herself into the circle of her relatives, the Ombersleys, and Charles Rivenhall, the Ombersley heir, vows to rid his family of her by marrying her off. But vibrant and irrepressible Sophy was no stranger to managing delicate situations. After all, she'd been keeping opportunistic females away from her widowed father for years. But staying with her relatives could be her biggest challenge yet.

When Lady Ombersley agrees to take in her young niece, no one expects Sophy, who sweeps in and immediately takes the ton by storm. Beautiful, gay, impulsive, shockingly direct, Sophy swept into elegant London society and scattered conventions and traditions before her like wisps in a windstorm. But Sophy discovers that her aunt's family is in desperate need of her talent for setting everything right: her uncle is of no use at all, the ruthlessly handsome cousin Charles has tyrannical tendencies that are being aggravated by his grim fiancee; lovely cousin Cecelia was smitten with an utterly unsuitable suitor, a poet; cousin Herbert was in dire financial straits; and the younger children are in desperate need of some fun and freedom, and she's arrived just in time to save them all.

She became the mainstay of her hilariously bedeviled family, as a horsewoman, social leader and above all, as an ingenious match-maker. Using her signature unorthodox methods, Sophy set out to solve all of their problems. By the time she's done, Sophy has commandeered Charles's horses, his household, and finally, his heart. Could it be that the Grand Sophy had finally met her match...?

Review

First a word about the author. If you've never read a Georgette Heyer Regency she is the gold standard against which other Regency Romance authors are compared. Her work is beautifully researched but still delightfully readable: filled with fascinating characters, complex plots and beautiful settings.

Sophy is the daughter of a diplomat who is sent to stay with English relatives who do not know her. They are expecting a shy and timid mouse - are they in for a BIG surprise!

Sophy arrives complete with a monkey and a parrot [which was not raised in a vicarage] for the children, an Italian greyhound at her feet and her personal groom and maid in attendance. She is tall and although not classically beautiful, her vivacious charm wins over all the family members in the first meeting except Charles, the dour eldest son.

Charles is pained by his cousin's behavior. She is forward, bold, out-spoken and a bad influence on his family. Already she is encouraging sister Cecilia's unfortunate infatuation with a poet, encouraging brother Hubert to confide in her rather than himself, fascinating the children and befriending his mother. Everyone loves her except Charles' fiancée...

Sophy is never bored, there is always something, or someone, to put to rights and she finds ample situations in her newly acquired family. There's Cecilia who is weeping over her poet and the 'older man' they want her to marry, there's Hubert who is obviously laboring under a heavy burden of worry, and Charles who has become a domestic tyrant and is engaged to a truly tedious girl which he intends to inflict on the family by moving her into the house after the wedding. But she's set worse situations to rights, it's only a matter of planning and initiative...

The book abounds with wits, rakes, snobs and eccentrics, all fashionably dressed and involved in a whirlwind of social activities. It sparkles with intelligent, witty and charming conversation. The plot has a satisfying number of twists without anyone stumbling over a dead body or kidnapping the king or even losing a diamond necklace. The romance is warm and believable. Like most of Georgette Heyer's work, this is a stand alone novel.

Sunday, 28 September 2014

NEW RELEASE! Here Comes Trouble by Natalie Acres

Synopsis

Ellie Hunter wasn’t looking for a protector, but she definitely wanted a place to lay low and hide. Divorced from her abusive husband for over six months, Ellie goes to Trouble’s gates as a last resort after her ex pays her a ‘final’ visit.

Allister McCall, Ryan Thomas, Derek Swinney, and Bradley Powers have known Ellie for the better part of their lives and the memory of sharing her is stamped in their minds. When Ellie arrives in small town Trouble, the men jump to all sorts of illicit assumptions.

Once Ellie reconnects with Allister, Ryan, Derek, and Bradley, Ellie’s life is seemingly complete, assuming her ex-husband will let her live in peace. With Navy SEAL training behind them, Ellie’s men are confident Ellie’s ex will finally let her go but if he refuses there will be hell to pay. One way or another, four men will ensure Ellie is protected, loved, honored, and adored.

Purchase Links

Bookstrand ~ Amazon US ~ Amazon UK

AUTHOR LOWDOWN with Jennifer Ryder

A huge THANK YOU to Jennifer Ryder for coming back for a second interview. You can find the first one here from March 2014

You’re being abducted by hunky aliens and they’ve never watched a DVI. What five movies do you take to watch with them?

Sweet Home Alabama

The Notebook - for shits n giggles (I'd like to see what they think)

Magic Mike - so they can morph like them to conform

Bridesmaids - because it's my fave

Sons of Anarchy - I know it’s not a movie, but I’d like to scare the shit out of them so they know what we're capable of. Oh, and of course to appreciate Jax in all his glory.

You’re stranded on a fully catered desert island (food, accommodation and clothing). What five items/people do you take to have some fun with??

Firstly, I’m assuming booze is included in the ‘food’ element. If not, booze is on the list.

My hubby and two kids

A babysitter

A solar powered kindle, fully loaded with books by my favourite authors

A variety of board games (that can double as entertainment for the kids, and drinking games for adults) J

You previously stated that Eevie was the hardest character to write. Now that you have three books out, which character would you say now was the hardest?

Writing my characters has gotten easier over time, but I did have some challenges with Spencer Jones. Well, it was kind of hard to get inside the mind of a manwhore! I must admit though, I did enjoy the challenges involved in getting his character just right.

What kind of research is involved for you with writing MX books?

I can’t tell you how many YouTube videos I have watched (much to my five-year old boy’s delight). I also read Dirtbike magazines, follow a few riders and organisations on Facebook and Google is of course, my best friend.

Since Australia now has Author Signings *fistpump*, which events do you plan on attending as an author?

Here are the signing events I’ll be attending in 2015:

ARRA - Canberra 7 March - https://www.facebook.com/australian.convention#!/events/650998144995498/

RWDU– Gold Coast 27/28 March - https://www.facebook.com/australian.convention#!/groups/RWDUAttendingFans/

FYM– Melbourne – 17/18 October https://www.facebook.com/australian.convention#!/groups/720061041391319/

I will also be at Sydney Authors Event in November this year, but I’ll be getting my stalk on as a reader. Don’t be afraid to say hi!

If there are any other events out there you’d like to see me at (in Australia), let me know about them!

We know that Strike has been released, what are your plans for future writing?

I am currently working on Sting (Spark Series #4) – Detective Ryan Clark's book. Release is set for late 2014/early 2015. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23200287-sting

Coming Early 2015:

*Cheekily unnamed until just before release (Spark Series #5) - Soph & Rocco

*Again, unnamed until before release (Spark Series #6) - SURPRISE!

Coming Mid 2015:

Blackmail by any other name (erotic BDSM themed – NOT in the Spark series)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20500461-blackmail-by-any-other-name

As a relatively new author, do you have any advice for aspiring authors out there?

Work hard at building a fan base before publishing, particularly if you are Indie Publishing. Promoting yourself is hard work! I spent about six months doing this before the release of Spark. It’s a good opportunity to build up a raport with readers and also network with other authors. Having support from other authors, simply to ask questions, or watch how they interact with people through social media has been invaluable. I’d also highly recommend a release blitz or blog tour to coincide with release of your first book to get it as much exposure as possible.

The biggest piece advice I can give is to get a lot of people to read your work. Feedback from beta-readers is invaluable, and even though it’s hard to receive constructive feedback (about your book-baby that is so close to your heart), you want to get that feedback from betas, and not readers once you’ve published. Take every opportunity to improve your work, and don’t publish until you are at the point where you know you can’t do anything else to get it to shine.