If you follow me on Facebook, then you know that for the month of December, I’m giving away a book (or more) a week! Week 1’s giveaway, a paperback of BEFORE by Anna Todd, ends tomorrow night on Dec 8, so make sure to enter! This week’s giveaway for a SIGNED paperback of NOVEMBER 9 by Colleen Hoover is now up!
Click the images to enter!
Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Truth About Him by M. O’Keefe!
You can check out my review for this amazing book here!
The Truth About Him by M. O’Keefe
Series: Everything I Left Unsaid #2 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 24th 2015
For fans of Christina Lauren and Jodi Ellen Malpas comes the next novel in M. O’Keefe’s breathtakingly sexy series about a woman called into a journey of the heart, body, and soul.
We played our roles, told each other lies.
But now Dylan is no longer just a mysterious deep voice on the other end of the line. We’re face-to-face and our relationship is very, very real.
We still have secrets—but so much is crystal clear:
The thrilling danger.
The raw, naked desire.
The need to keep feeling the way he makes me feel. Forever.
Dylan is putting up walls, trying to keep me safe, but he can’t shut me out. He has seen my darkness and rescued me. Now it’s my turn, if only he will let me.
Buy Links:
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • iTunes • Kobo
Now here’s an excerpt from The Truth About Him! ❤
The whole drive home I told myself I would stay away from Annie.
That seeing my brother had made me raw. Too raw.
Unfit for her.
I walked directly from my car to my trailer. I even kicked off my shoes. But when I went to charge my phone, I could not resist looking at the picture she’d sent.
And looking at it, her pale flesh, her hands between her legs, only made me worse. More . . . dangerous.
But in the end, even while I was telling myself not to, I grabbed two condoms from the stash in the bathroom and walked straight to her trailer door. In the darkest part of the night. The darkest thoughts running through my head.
You’re gonna scare her, I told myself. Knocks on the door in the middle of the night never bring good news.
Well, I’m not fucking good news, am I?
I knocked and waited, my hands braced on the cool metal of her RV. I heard a small thump and the sound of her padding to the door, and I hung my head.
Resigned to this dark thing.
The door opened and there she was, rumpled and sweet. Her hair messy, her eyes barely open.
“Dylan?”
“Open the door, Annie.”
Something in my voice, some command, some need I was barely keeping in line, must have penetrated and her eyes opened wide. Her mouth, those sweet lips, opened, revealing the wet edge of her tongue. The shine of her teeth.
Fuck. That mouth . . .
“What are you going to do, Dylan?” she breathed back at me. A challenge. She was not scared and she was not unaware.
“I’m going to fuck you.”
Her pale hand, hazy through the screen, reached forward and popped open the door. I threw it open and then slammed it shut behind me once I was inside. Both doors, until it was just us in this trailer.
#1 ~ Everything I Left Unsaid: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Truth About Him: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
Molly O’Keefe has always known she wanted to be a writer (except when she wanted to be a florist or a chef and the brief period of time when she considered being a cowgirl). And once she got her hands on some romances, she knew exactly what she wanted to write.
She published her first Harlequin romance at age 25 and hasn’t looked back. She loves exploring every character’s road towards happily ever after.
Originally from a small town outside of Chicago, she went to university in St. Louis where she met and fell in love with the editor of her school newspaper. They followed each other around the world for several years and finally got married and settled down in Toronto, Ontario. They welcomed their son into their family in 2006, and their daughter in 2008. When she’s not at the park or cleaning up the toy room, Molly is working hard on her next novel, trying to exercise, stalking Tina Fey on the internet and dreaming of the day she can finish a cup of coffee without interruption.
$50 Gift Card
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Happy Release Day to Penelope Douglas – Misconduct is live!
Check out my 5 star review, an excerpt, and a fantastic giveaway below!
Misconduct by Penelope Douglas
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: December 1st 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Organized by: As the Pages Turn
Former tennis player Easton Bradbury is trying to be the best teacher she can be, trying to reach her bored students and trying to forget her past. What brought her to this stage in her life isn’t important. She can’t let it be. But now one parent-teacher meeting may be her undoing…
Meeting Tyler Marek for the first time makes it easy for Easton to see why his son is having trouble in school. The man knows how to manage businesses and wealth, not a teenage boy. Or a young teacher, for that matter, though he tries to. And yet…there is something about him that draws Easton in—a hint of vulnerability, a flash of attraction, a spark that might burn.
Wanting him is taboo. Needing him is undeniable. And his long-awaited touch will weaken Easton’s resolve—and reveal what should stay hidden…
(*STANDALONE, NO CLIFFHANGER*)
Buy Links:
Amazon Ebook • Amazon Paperback • B&N • Kobo • iTunes • BAM
Oh. My. God! You guys, I loved Misconduct. SO FREAKING MUCH. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it was perfect! Hot, sexy as hell, and utterly perfect! I honestly couldn’t stop grinning (and fanning myself) the whole time I was reading it. I’ve adored all of Penelope Douglas’s books, but I have to say, Misconduct is her HOTTEST one yet. Seriously, the hero is the sexiest DILF I’ve ever read – everyone needs to experience the wonder that is Tyler Marek. 😉
I loooove me some taboo in my romances, so Misconduct is a match made in heaven for me. It’s got a unique twist to it too – it’s not a teacher/student romance, but a teacher/student’s parent romance! So the hero is older, more established, sexier… all sorts of yummy. The heroine, Easton Bradbury, is an ex-tennis player who’s just starting her job as a teacher at a prestigious private school. She’s my favorite kind of heroine – ballsy, feisty, a spitfire, and not afraid to stand her ground against the hero. She’s got a few quirks to her, which made her all the more likable, and a past that had me intrigued.
Now, Tyler… He’s delicious. A total jerk in the beginning, but Penelope Douglas writes him in such an intense, sensual way that I couldn’t help but grudgingly love him (Penelope is just so good at writing lovable jerks). He’s the single father of Christian, one of Easton’s students. He’s ambitious, a powerful man in New Orleans, and deeply, maddeningly attracted to his son’s teacher. But if he decides to pursue a relationship with her – sexual or more – he runs the risk of losing his son, reputation, his bid to becoming Senator… everything.
But now here she was, my kid’s teacher, dangerous and forbidden, which only increased her allure, and she’d been just as hot tonight as she’d been on that balcony all those months ago—the different being now I couldn’t fucking touch her.
Easton and Tyler are smokin’ HOT together! Just, WOW. Even before any bedroom activity happens, these two were setting my kindle on fire. There’s a fine line between love and hate for these two, and Penelope Douglas writes their tumultuous relationship perfectly. And the forbidden aspect only made the chemistry between them even hotter.
“You belong in my bed every night, and I fucking hate that I can’t have you there,” he gritted out, his hands working between our bodies. “I want to buy you shit just to have you throw it back in my face, and I want to fly you to Fiji just so I can rip a bikini off of you.”
(Like, holy fucking hotness, RIGHT!? There’s more where that came from… so… READ THIS BOOK.)
Easton and Tyler’s story blew me away. But I love that we get so much more than just their romance. Penelope Douglas delves deeply into Easton’s unique method of teaching, which I actually really enjoyed reading. And Tyler, the ambitious man that he is, is stretched so thin between Easton, his son, his company, and trying to run for Senator that he needs to learn to make sacrifices for the things that mean the most to him. He wants to have it all, but he can’t, so will he make changes and put those he loves first in his life for once?
I love the way Penelope Douglas writes. Her books never fail to hook me in and keep me riveted to each page. She has such talent at creating characters that you root for from the very beginning, and at writing addicting stories you don’t want to let go of. And if you couldn’t already tell, Misconduct is another winner from one of my favorite authors. It’s a book that proves why Penelope Douglas continues to be one of my top authors. Everything about this book is fantastic, sexy, well-rounded, well-written, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
Now here’s an excerpt from Misconduct! ❤
“Good morning. Tyler Marek’s office,” a woman’s pleasant voice chirped. “How can I help you?”
My heart pounded in my ears, and I could feel the pulse in my neck throb. I held back, almost wishing he wasn’t in his office after all.
I needed time to calm down.
But I swallowed and pushed forward anyway. “Yes, hello,” I rushed out.
“Easton, keep your cool,” I heard my brother warn from my side.
I bit my lip to keep the anger out of my voice. “I’m Easton Bradbury calling for Mr. Marek,” I told her. “I’m sure he’s not in today, but—”
“Just a moment, please,” she interrupted, and disappeared.
I sucked in a breath, realizing that he was in after all.
“Marek?” my brother asked. “Tyler Marek?”
I glanced at him, arching an eyebrow in annoyance.
“Easton, get off the call,” Jack ordered.
His arm shot out, trying to grab the phone, but I slapped his hand away.
“Watch the road!” I barked, pointing at the street ahead.
“Easton, I’m serious,” he growled. “Tyler Marek has a workforce of more than ten thousand people. He may be a senator, for crying out loud. It isn’t your place to argue with him.”
I shot him a look. My place?
My brother was worried about his career, but I didn’t care who Marek was. He was still a man.
Nothing but a man.
“Ms. Bradbury.”
I turned my head away from my brother, suddenly hearing Marek’s voice in my ear.
Thick anticipation filled my chest, and I dropped my eyes, disappointed that I was actually excited.
“Mr. Marek,” I replied curtly, remembering why I had called. “I received your e-mail, and I’d love to . . .” I trailed off, wiping the sweat off my hairline. “I’d love to schedule a meeting to sit down and work out a plan for Christian.”
“We’ve already met,” he pointed out, his voice clipped. “And it was not a productive use of my time, Ms. Bradbury.”
I tried reasoning. “Mr. Marek, we both want what’s best for your son. If we work together—”
“Ms. Bradbury.” He cut me off, and I could hear people talking in the background. “Apparently I wasn’t clear enough in my e-mail, so let me save us both some time. My son has no problems with any other teacher, so it goes without saying that you’re the problem.” His stern voice cut me, and I felt like shrinking. “You suffer from an overindulged sense of entitlement, and you forget that your job is on a yearly contract.”
My eyes widened, taking in his threat that my job this year could belong to someone else next year. I fisted the hem of the skirt at my thigh.
“Now, I’m a busy man,” he continued, sounding condescending, “and I don’t have time for silly young women who don’t know their place.”
My skin stung from where my fingernail dug in. His son didn’t have problems with me. Perhaps I graded harder than other teachers, and I might have had unorthodox methods, but most of the students enjoyed my class, including Christian. When he participated. If he ever challenged me, it was because his father wouldn’t allow him the freedom to have the tools to participate like all the other students.
“Now, can I get on with my day and consider this issue settled?” he sniped.
Heat spread over my skin, and I bared my teeth. “You can go to hell,” I shot back, raging. “No wonder he can’t stand you.”
“Easton!” Jack burst out next me.
But it was too late. My eyes widened, and my hand tingled, nearly losing grip on the phone.
What the hell did I just say?
Penelope Douglas is the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Fall Away series.
She dresses for autumn year round, loves anything lemon flavored, and believes there is too much blood in her Coca Cola stream. Or too much Coca Cola in her blood stream. Or…
You know what? It doesn’t matter. She loves Coke. Now you know.
She lives in Las Vegas with her husband and daughter.
The giveaway is international and ends at 11:59 PM CST 12/07/2015.
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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt!
“I’d rather your acid tongue than any number of sweet lies from pretty lips.”
Lately I’ve been writing outlines, though not so much with the meticulous.
The readers, of course. Readers who come up to me at conferences and tell me about scenes in books I wrote ten years ago (and which I can’t remember very well!) Readers who post on Facebook that they read all my books and no matter how the hero is described paste Chris Helmsworth’s face over him. Readers on Goodreads who post the funniest reviews with dozens of embedded gifs. And readers on Twitter who are so excited when I post that I’ve finished a first draft. Readers are the best.
President of the United States. Although I have no political background, I have never cheated on my spouse or taken money from any special interest groups. Also, I am sane. At the moment I feel this makes me more qualified than 95% of the contenders.
Emotion. Some humor. A bit of action. Some lovely sweaty sex.
Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt
Series: Maiden Lane #9 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 24th 2015
SHE’S TAKING CHARGE
Prim, proper, and thrifty, Eve Dinwoody is all business when it comes to protecting her brother’s investment. But when she agrees to control the purse strings of London’s premier pleasure garden, Harte’s Folly, she finds herself butting heads with an infuriating scoundrel who can’t be controlled.
HE’S RUNNING THE SHOW
Bawdy and bold, Asa Makepeace doesn’t have time for a penny-pinching prude like Eve. As the garden’s larger-than-life owner, he’s already dealing with self-centered sopranos and temperamental tenors. He’s not about to let an aristocratic woman boss him around . . . no matter how enticing she is.
BUT LOVE CONQUERS ALL
In spite of her lack of theatrical experience-and her fiery clashes with Asa-Eve is determined to turn Harte’s Folly into a smashing success. But the harder she tries to manage the stubborn rake, the harder it is to ignore his seductive charm and raw magnetism. There’s no denying the smoldering fire between them-and trying to put it out would be the greatest folly of all . . .
Buy Links:
Amazon • B&N • iBooks • Google Play • Kobo • BAM
Sweetest Scoundrel is actually the first book I’ve read by Elizabeth Hoyt, but I jumped at the chance to read it because I LOVE historical romances even though I don’t read them very often, and I was looking forward to the fact that the hero isn’t an aristocrat. Thankfully, I wasn’t confused at all jumping into book 9 of the Maiden Lane series, so if you’re like me and haven’t read the series yet, this book can be read completely as a standalone.
Asa Makepeace’s whole life is his pleasure garden, which is a sort of theatre with performances, opera, and the like. He’s currently rebuilding it after it was burned down in a fire, but unfortunately it’s costing a lot of money to do so. One of his investors is the Duke of Montgomery, and the duke’s sister, Eve Dinwoody, is in charge of the money, so when she realizes that Asa’s pleasure garden is using up way more money than expected, she goes down to cut the funding for the garden. Sadly, Asa makes a less-than-grand entrance in Eve’s life – he’s naked, with a woman in his bed, and very rude to Eve. Basically, he’s a total jerk to her because he thinks she cold and stuck-up, but he tries to butter her up later when he realizes his funding is going to be cut. Eventually they agree on a deal, and as the two of them spend more time together, they realize that their first impressions of each other were wrong.
He realized suddenly, that he might have had it all wrong. Perhaps her core wasn’t bloodless after all. Perhaps under that cold exterior, that polite, aristocratic facade, there boiled a passionate woman, hiding her emotion from all the world.
And he wondered what would happen if he stripped away her exterior, tore through her frozen, refined walls and dug his finders into the molten heat at her center.
I actually really enjoyed Sweetest Scoundrel, after I warmed up to Asa, since he’s not very likable in the beginning. He’s a prick, but thankfully he quickly realizes that there’s a lot more to Eve than meets the eye. The both of them have their own traumatic pasts, which are slowly revealed as the two gain each other’s trust. As for Eve, I really adored her character – she’s scarred, innocent, lovable. She’s the kind of character that makes me want to wrap her up in a hug.
Elizabeth Hoyt knows how to write some hot chemistry! The tension between Eve and Asa is raw and palpable, and so much fun to read about. They’re drawn to one another, despite how different they are, but they can’t help that they want each other. It’s so sweet how Asa turns all protective and alpha-y when it comes to Eve – he grows to care for her so much! He’s determined to help her overcome her fears, and break out of the shell she hides in. And Eve just can’t resist Asa’s oozing sensuality.
“Lily of the valley,” he murmured. “I’ll remember that scent forever now, and whenever I smell it again I’ll think of you, Eve Dinwoody. You’ll be haunting my tomorrows evermore.”
Elizabeth Hoyt is now an author I definitely need to keep an eye out on. I loved her writing – I can’t believe I hadn’t read this series sooner! I need to start the series from the beginning now, since I enjoyed Sweetest Scoundrel so much. The main characters are endearing and lovable, and I loved how sweet their romance turned. I’d definitely recommend this book – it’s entertaining, satisfying, and seriously HOT.
Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.
#1 ~ Wicked Intentions: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Notorious Pleasures: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ Scandalous Desires: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#4 ~ Thief of Shadows: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#5 ~ Lord of Darkness: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#6 ~ Duke of Midnight: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#7 ~ Darling Beast: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#8 ~ Dearest Rogue: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#9 ~ Sweetest Scoundrel: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#10 ~ Duke of Sin: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#10.5 ~ Once Upon a Moonlit Night: My Review • Ebook • Goodreads
#11 ~ Duke of Pleasure: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads (Nov. 29, 2016)
#11.5 ~ Once Upon a Christmas Eve: Ebook • Goodreads (Dec. 6, 2016)
#12 ~ Duke of Desire: Goodreads (out 2017)
Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series. Publishers Weekly has called her writing “mesmerizing.” She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.
The winters in Minnesota have been known to be long and cold and Elizabeth is always thrilled to receive reader mail. You can write to her at: P.O. Box 19495, Minneapolis, MN 55419 or email her at: Elizabeth@ElizabethHoyt.com.
Blog Giveaway (US only):
Paperback copy of SWEETEST SCOUNDREL by Elizabeth Hoyt
Tour Giveaway:
10 SIGNED copies of SWEETEST SCOUNDREL by Elizabeth Hoyt
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Happy Release Day to Lauren Layne – Steal Me is live! Check out my Q&A with Lauren below, as well as my review and a fantastic giveaway!
That I’m a total science fiction geek. Star Wars is my favorite movie of all time, although my husband has slowly converted me over to Star Trek, and I’m a big fan of that as well.
I almost always start with the idea or the general premise; rarely does the character come first. And I’m a planner. I’ve gotten looser with my planning as I write more books and get more comfortable with the flow of writing a book, but I generally have at least a pretty comprehensive list of scenes that need to get written before I type Chapter One.
I believe it was Nora Roberts who said, “I can fix a bad page, but I can’t fix a blank one.” I repeat that on almost a daily basis. I know that I just need to reach The End, no matter how messy the words might be. Once the words are there, they’re always fixable.
Oh man. I’m going to be super literal here and say my laptop. I like music but don’t need it. And usually have my water bottle, but not always. Sometimes a notebook, sometimes not. I’m pretty bare bones and minimalist J
The main characters I spend a bit of time going through name lists, trying to get the right vibe (and finding one that I haven’t used before, which is getting harder and harder). For minor characters, I use a “random name” generator on my web browser.
I make soundtracks for almost all of my books, there’s always one song that’s more vital than the rest. Name any of my books, and I can tell you which song I listened to on repeat while writing it!
Ha. I think I was born this way. For as long as I can remember, I was that kid that said I wanted to be an author when I grew up, and I always loved writing in school. Then college ended. I had no more writing to do for school, but I also didn’t think that writing could be a full-time career, so I entered the work force and put writing behind me as a hobby. What a mistake!! That all came back to bite me a few years later when the need to write was so strong that it was all I could think about. It took me a year or so to work up the courage, another year or so to stick with it, and then I decided to jump in with both feet. I quit my job, moved to New York, wrote about four books in two months like a mad woman, and got an agent/publisher.
Of all my books, Steal Me is the one that veered the most from my original outline. The original heroine was a feisty red-head named Kat who was the least suspect in a burglary case. I’m not sure why or when it changed, but by the time I’d finished Frisk Me (book one in the series), I knew that Anthony’s story and woman were entirely different than I’d originally planned.
Steal Me by Lauren Layne
Series: New York’s Finest #2 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 24th 2015
Publisher: Forever
IN HOT PURSUIT
Being a cop might be in Anthony Moretti’s blood, but protecting and serving the city of New York has always been more than just the family business. If that means his love life stays locked up, well then that’s just another sacrifice made in the line of duty. That is, until he sets eyes on the gorgeous new waitress at The Darby Diner and suddenly Anthony’s morning coffee is leaving him a whole lot more hot and bothered than usual.
Though waitressing at The Darby isn’t exactly Maggie Walker’s dream job, it pays the bills and gives her time to work on her novel. Now if only she could stop fantasizing about gorgeous Anthony Moretti every time he sits down at her table, she’d really be in great shape. But when he needs her help identifying a criminal threatening The Darby—and Maggie recognizes her ex-husband—she fears her fresh start might be a pipe dream. Faster than a New York minute, Maggie and Anthony find themselves in one perilous pursuit that only gets hotter with each and every rule-breaking kiss.
Buy Links:
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • iTunes • Kobo • Google Play
#1 ~ Frisk Me: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Steal Me: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ Cuff Me: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads (March 29, 2016)
A long-time romance reader, Lauren Layne thinks the only thing better than reading about happy endings is writing them. She now pursues a full-time career in Happily Ever After, a job she’s naturally suited for after marrying her high school sweetheart. A bit of a nomad, Lauren’s lived everywhere from Orange County to Manhattan, and currently lives in the Seattle-area. Her hobbies include coffee by day, wine by night, and lots of writing in between. She’s also a total website nerd and insists you check out laurenlayne.com!
5 copies of STEAL ME
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Booklovers For Life 