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Friday, April 29, 2016

Cover Reveal: Love on Tap by Judi Lynn

Love on Tap Banner

Inside the Book:

Love on Tap
Title: Love on Tap
Author: Judi Lynn
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Genre: Romance
Format: Ecopy

There’s a different rhythm to life in small-town Mill Pond, Indiana. And with the easy pace come friendships that are built to last and love that starts out on a slow simmer…

 Charming boutiques, picturesque farms, and a growing foodie scene have turned Mill Pond into a tourist destination. And thanks to the culinary skills of Paula Hull, its beautiful rural resort is leading the way. The widowed mom left behind the stress of the New York City restaurant world to spend more time with her two young children. And now she’s ready to see if there’s more out there for her than being a chef and single parent…

Chase Atwood is the local good guy with a bad reputation. He’s a respected business owner and trusted friend, but the drop-dead gorgeous bar owner usually has women beating down his door—and Paula knows to keep her distance. His burgers and beer, on the other hand, are not off limits. But their mutual admiration is always on the back burner—until Chase turns up the heat. Soon he’s determined to prove to Paula that he’s the one key ingredient missing in her life…  

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Meet the Author

All of my works are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, smashwords, Scrib’d, Kobo, and more.

I’m a member of Goodreads and my author page can be found at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5023544.Judith_Post

I’m lucky enough to be represented by Lauren Abramo at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. I’ve been a member of Summit City Scribes for more years than I care to remember, and they’ve made me a better writer.  Thanks, guys!  




Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Book Feature: The Pitchfork of Destiny by Jack Heckel

The Pitchfork of Destiny

 

Inside the Book:

The Pitchfork of Destiny

Title: The Pitchfork of Destiny 
Author: Jack Heckel 
Release Date: May 17, 2016 
Publisher: Harper Voyager 
Genre: Mythology 
Format: Ebook/Paperback

    Life in the Kingdom of Royaume has been happily ever for King William Pickett and his fiancee, Lady Rapunzel. But when Volthraxus, the Great Dragon of the North, returns looking for the love of his life, the Great Wyrm of the South, it becomes clear that some fairy tales never end. After Volthraxus discovers his love was slain by the newly crowned king, he seeks his revenge by kidnapping Rapunzel. Once again, Will teams up with Edward Charming, the only man in all the kingdom with the skill, ego, and dashing good looks to fight a dragon. Our heroes fates depend on finding a weapon re-forged in dragon blood the Pitchfork of Destiny. But as the two set off after the dragon, Charming s bride, Lady Elizabeth, falls into the clutches of a mysterious sorcerer known as the Dracomancer, who has his own plans for Royaume."

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Meet the Author:

Jack Heckel's life is an open book, actually, the book you are in all hope holding right now (and if you are not holding it, he would like to tell you it can be purchased from any of your finest purveyors of the written word). Beyond that, Jack aspires to be either a witty, urbane, world-traveller who lives on his vintage yacht, The Clever Double Entendre, or a geographically illiterate professor of literature who spends his non-writing time restoring an 18th century lighthouse off a remote part of the Vermont coastline. Whatever you want to believe of him, he is without doubt the author of the premier volume of the Charming novels, Once Upon a Rhyme. So, no matter what rumors you might hear about Jack, particularly those spread by either litigious dwarves or litigious dwarfs, ignore them, because he is currently working on a sequel. Because more than anything, Jack lives for his readers. Despite whatever Jack may claim, in reality, Jack Heckel is the pen name for John Peck and Harry Heckel.
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Cover Reveal: The Christmas Tree by Allyson Charles

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Inside the Book:

The Christmas Tree
Title: The Christmas Tree
Author: Allyson Charles
Publisher: Lyrical Shine
Genre: Romance
Format: Ecopy

DECORATING WITH THE GRINCH

It was one little fender bender. Sadie was only in picturesque Pineville, Michigan, for a day, trying to handle the ramshackle house her grandmother left her and juggle the sale of her failing design business at the same time. Her debtors don’t care that it’s almost Christmas. But then neither does the big bad contractor whose truck got squashed.

Colt McCoy might be the least festive person she’s ever met. He’s gruff, rude, and way too upset about a minor accident. Of course, he is nice to look at, with dimples hiding in his scruffy beard and a body like a lumberjack’s. And Sadie will have plenty of time to enjoy the view, since their community service sentence has put the two of them in charge of Pineville’s jinxed Christmas tree.

But as their squabbles over ornaments turn to laughter, anyone can see Colt and Sadie have something electric. The hard part is guessing if they’ll light each other up—or just keep blowing the fuse . . .
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Meet the Author

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Allyson Charles lives in Northern California. She’s the author of the contemporary romances Putting Out Old Flames and The Christmas Tree. A former attorney, she happily ditched those suits and now works in her pajamas writing about men’s briefs instead of legal briefs. When she’s not writing, she’s probably engaged in one of her favorite hobbies: napping, eating, or martial arts (That last one almost makes up for the first two, right?). One of Allyson’s greatest disappointments is living in a state that doesn’t have any Cracker Barrels in it.

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How I Became a Writer by L.D. Beyer, author of An Eye For An Eye

An Eye for an Eye

Inside the Book:

An Eye for and Eye
Title: An Eye for an Eye 
Author: L.D. Beyer 
Release Date: January 15, 2016 
Publisher: Old Stone Mill Publishing 
Genre: Military 
Format: Ebook/Paperback
   

A powerful drug lord threatens to bring America to its knees. Only one man can stop him.

Two years ago, Secret Service Agent Matthew Richter faced the most difficult decision of his life, knowing that by saving the former, the latter would die. In the aftermath, he fled Washington and the agency that failed him. With wounds he’s certain will never heal, he seeks refuge behind a gun as the commander of an FBI SWAT team in New York. After a raid turns sour and Richter is sidelined, possibly for good, he is reluctantly drawn back to Washington by the man he once saved.

When drug cartels threaten to topple the Mexican government and the violence begins to spill across the border, Richter tells President David Kendall it’s time to take off the gloves. One by one, cartel warehouses and tunnels are raided and their drug caches destroyed. One by one, their sprawling compounds and bank accounts are seized. One by one, drug lords are targeted and killed. One by one—all except, that is, for Pablo Guerrero, the ruthless head of the Sangre Negras cartel, who has only grown stronger as others have fallen.

When the hunt for Guerrero finally draws first blood, he unleashes a war no one is prepared for. Now Richter must stop him before it’s too late.

An Eye For An Eye is the action-packed sequel to In Sheep’s Clothing, L.D. Beyer’s gripping debut novel.

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How I became a writer by L.D. Beyer

We are a product of our environment. I am an avid reader of thrillers and suspense novels, from authors like David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Michael Connolly, Mike Lawson and Brad Thor. My first novel, In Sheep’s Clothing, is a political thriller and I’m certain that it was influenced by the works of these and many other fine authors. But in many subtle ways, it was also influenced by my own experiences: the places I’ve lived, the events that took place, both in the broader world and in my own back yard.
This is my journey.
As a young child, one of my most vivid memories is moving every few years to a new town, to a new house, as my father climbed the corporate ladder. Little did I realize at the time that my own life would follow a similar path.
By rights, I could call myself a southern boy, but that wouldn’t be accurate. I was born in Georgia and a few years later, we moved to Louisiana. My early child years were during the 1960s, a turbulent time for America dominated by the struggle for racial equality and the Civil Rights movement; the growing threat of the Soviet Union, both in the race to the moon and in the race to bear arms; civil unrest and riots in Watts and Newark, and later, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; and by the war raging in South East Asia.
The decade was marred by the growing body count in Vietnam and by the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother, Robert, and Dr. Martin Luther King. The British invaded, Beatle Mania swept the nation and while we listened to Rock and Roll, we watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. With the exception of the moon landing, it wasn’t until I was much older that I learned of many of the events that had occurred during what I had viewed as my carefree childhood years. Still, the events of the 1960s, in many subtle ways, would have an effect on me.
By the end of the decade, my father’s job took us to Pennsylvania and as the 1970s began, we relocated again, this time to New Jersey. The turbulence continued with the still-unexplained shooting of innocent students at Kent State, the Watergate Scandal and the resignation of a president, and the final withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. All three would weigh heavily on the nation for years to come. Oil embargoes left us waiting on long gas lines, the Beatles broke up and Elvis, after a long public struggle to escape his personal demons, finally did.
Life moved on and, even in the midst of a rash of kidnappings and hijackings, technology leapt forward with the introduction of microprocessors and computer chips, VCRs and floppy disks, and the start-up of something Bill Gates called Microsoft. As the decade ended, a peanut farmer from my birth state became president and his only notable accomplishment was brokering a peace accord between Israeli and Egypt. Meanwhile, students in neighboring Iran stormed the US embassy and took Americans hostage.
Despite having moved so many times as a young child, most of my childhood was spent in the Garden State, less than an hour from New York City. My life consisted of Little League baseball in the spring, Pee Wee football in the fall, summers at the town pool and winters sleigh riding. On Thanksgiving Day, we stood on 34th Street in Manhattan and watched the parade in front of Macy’s. On July 4th, we watched the fireworks over the East River.
Outside of school, life was trouble free and I spent many hours biking around town, hiking, playing in the streams near our house and building forts in the woods. In high school, my athletic pursuits switched to soccer and ice hockey. Long gone was my thick, southern accent.
I attended college in New York during the 1980’s, which began somewhat prophetically when a group of kids my own age defeated the seemingly unstoppable Olympic Ice Hockey Team from the former Soviet Union, ending their twenty-year Gold Medal streak. Suddenly, there was a renewed pride in America ending the collective funk from Vietnam, Nixon’s disgraced presidency and the stagflation of the Carter years.
For me, nothing exemplified America’s renewed strength better than President Ronald Reagan, who shortly after he took office, defied an assassin’s bullet and, despite being seriously wounded, walked into the hospital unassisted. Reagan survived and, several years later, challenged the Soviet Union again, not to hockey this time, rather to tear down a wall in Berlin. By the end of the decade, the wall, symbolic of the Iron Curtain, did fall, and with it, one by one, the communist governments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union as well.
As I began a career in accounting and finance, writing was far from my mind. Although I had written a short story or two in both high school and college, earning praise and publication in school anthologies, I never thought of myself as a writer. It wasn’t until many years later that I began to wonder whether something was missing from my life.
I met my wife shortly after college. Strangely enough, we had attended the same school but it wasn’t until a Halloween party several years later that we finally met. We married and not only worked full time in our respective careers, but we both attended Grad school at night as well. Starting a family was put off, but kids soon joined us and while my wife doted on them, I continued my journey up the corporate ladder.
Our journey took us from New York to Michigan to Illinois, then back to Michigan again. One day, after we had been in our house for about a year, my youngest, in his third house in four years, asked if it was time to move again. Little did he or I know at the time, but, several years later, we did, this time to Mexico.
We lived in an old colonial city several hours north of Mexico City where we met many fantastic people and enjoyed the country and the culture in a way that a tourist never could. Although Mexico was, and still is, embroiled in a war with drug cartels, and security has become a growing concern, it was a wonderful experience for me, my wife and my three children. Three years later we were back in Michigan again and, by this time, I was a senior executive for a Fortune 500 company.
I was living the American dream: wonderful wife, great kids, nice house, rewarding career. Still, when I thought about my life, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something I needed to do, a creative urge I needed to explore. In my chosen field, accounting and finance, bouts of creativity are usually followed by a prison sentence. I don’t look good in prison stripes, or so I kept telling myself, so one day, I decided it was time to do something different. With the support of my family, I began writing.
It has been a long, rambling journey full of many unexpected twists and turns while the broader events of the world seemed to unfold on their own around me. All of this somehow found its way from the dark recesses of my brain to the pages of my book. I hope you enjoy the read.

Meet the Author:

LDB-portrait1

L.D. Beyer spent over twenty-five years in the corporate world, climbing the proverbial corporate ladder. This meant a lot of time away from his family, extensive travel, a half dozen relocations, and the opportunity to live and work in Mexico for several years. In 2011 he decided it was time for a change—he was tired of moving every few years, he wanted to spend more time with his family and he wanted to chase his dream of being a writer. LD Beyer is an avid reader and although he primarily reads Thrillers, his reading list is somewhat eclectic. He believes a few hours with a good book beats a few hours in front of the TV any day. LD Beyer lives in Michigan with his wife, three children and a dog named Tope (pronounced Toe-Pay), which he adopted in Mexico. He enjoys cooking, hiking, biking, working out and fixing just about anything that breaks in the house. With 3 kids, a dog and an aging house, he always seems to be fixing something!

For More Information

Visit L.D.s website.
Connect with L.D. on Twitter and Facebook 

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Book Feature: The Flower Fairy Superhero by Noam and Bryan Atinsky - Win a Kindle!



 

Inside the Book:


Title: The Flower Fairy Superhero 
Author: Noam and Bryan Atinsky 
Release Date: January 24, 2016 
Publisher: Amazon Digital 
Genre: Children's 
Format: Ebook/Hardcover

A read-along eBook (enhanced with audio),has a powerful message; it is a heartfelt example of a father honoring the memory of his daughter. Beautiful and creative Noam wrote this story as play to perform for her family on her 5th birthday. Her tale of a flower fairy that possesses very special powers able to help the meanest of people and change them into good and happy human beings is the perfect way to illustrate to children the power of a positive attitude. Written in Noam's words, it speaks to a young audience and is easy to understand and relate to the story. The children can follow along while voice professionals act out the the story with Noam's words. Part of the proceeds from the book will go to The Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON ITUNES




MEET THE AUTHOR

I am currently owner and Chef at a restaurant in Milwaukee. Before the death of my family, I was, for many years, a journalist and Executive Editor at a news organization based in Jerusalem. Being able to do a good percentage of my work from home, I was able to be an at home father, facilitating my wife to be able to work full time at a biological science lab. Because of this, I was deeply involved in bringing up Noam and my son, Ya’ari, from an early age.

Noam wrote the play, which became the Flower Fairy Superhero book, for her birthday, only 3 months before she was killed while visiting family and friends in Israel. Soon after the accident, a Hebrew version of her play was published in a national newspaper in Israel. This got me thinking that publishing her play as an illustrated children’s book would be the best way to honor her memory and creativity as a living memorial. I had thought of going to Francisco X. Mora, an artist and family friend who knew Noam, and has illustrated many children’s books over the years. Quite unexpectedly, he came to me, after reading a copy of Noam’s play, and requested that he be able to work with me to make Noam’s play into an illustrated children’s book. I jumped at his offer.
I believe that people live on through the memories of those whose lives they touch. I saw that publishing Noam’s creative and ethical story could not only spread her creativity to a much wider group of people, but that the story itself was life affirming and teaches the very positive lesson that kindness and caring are some of the most powerful tools we have in this world. Further, I felt that having a portion of the proceeds of the sale of Noam’s work go towards helping other children in crisis, would be an honor to the memory of Noam. I have given the book to many libraries around the Milwaukee area and donated over 500 copies to community organizations.
Similarly, my wife Efrat was a Plant Disease Biologist at the University of Athens, Georgia. After the accident, a memorial garden, highlighting her love of plants and nature, was established in Athens.

On the terrible day of March 7, 2010, Noam, her mother Efrat, her nine-month-old brother Ya’ari, and her grandmother Esther Gamliel, were killed in a car accident in southern Israel. But a few months before that day, on Noam’s 5th birthday, she wrote a puppet play—a superhero story!—to perform in front of her family and friends 
at her birthday party. She dictated the story to my wife and I, and I wrote down what she said into our computer. We performed the play at our home in Athens, Georgia. Noam played the Flower Fairy, my wife Efrat played the Queen, and I played the Ogre.


WIN A KINDLE


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———————

Tour Schedule

Monday, April 18 - Book reviewed at The Children's and Teens Book Connection
Tuesday, April 19 - Book reviewed at Bound 4 Escape
Wednesday, April 20 - Book reviewed at K&A's Childrens Book Review
Thursday, April 21 - Guest blogging at Curling Up with a Good Book
Friday, April 22 - Book featured at Harmonious Publicity
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Monday, April 25 - Interviewed at I'm Shelf-ish
Tuesday, April 26 - Book featured at A Title Wave
Wednesday, April 27 - Book featured at FU Only Knew
Thursday, April 28 - Book featured at The Literary Nook
Friday, April 29 - Book featured at The Dark Phantom
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Monday, May 2 - Book reviewed at Book Babble
Tuesday, May 3 - Book reviewed at 100 Pages a Day
Wednesday, May 4 - Book reviewed at The Blended Blog
Thursday, May 5 - Book reviewed at Fascinating Quest
Friday, May 6 - Book reviewed at Room with Books
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Monday, May 9 - Interviewed at Deal Sharing Aunt
Tuesday, May 10 - Book featured at Around the World in Books
Wednesday, May 11 - Guest blogging at The Noise Beneath the Apple
Thursday, May 12 - Book reviewed at Laura's Interests
Friday, May 13 - Book featured at Voodoo Princess
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Liz Lazarus' FREE OF MALICE BOOK BLAST






Title: FREE OF MALICE
Author: Liz Lazarus
Publisher: Mitchell Cove Publishing LLC
Pages: 274
Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Laura Holland awakes in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing in her bedroom doorway. She manages to defend herself from the would-be rapist, though he threatens to return as he retreats. Traumatized with recurring nightmares, Laura seeks therapy and is exposed to a unique treatment called EMDR. She also seeks self-protection— buying a gun against the wishes of her husband. When Laura learns she could have gone to prison had she shot her fleeing assailant, she decides to write a hypothetical legal case using the details of that night. She enlists the help of criminal defense lawyer, Thomas Bennett, who proves to be well versed in the justice system but has an uncanny resemblance to her attacker. As the two work together to develop the story, Laura's discomfort escalates particularly when Thomas seems to know more about that night than he should. Reality and fiction soon merge as her real life drama begins to mirror the fiction she's trying to create.

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Book Excerpt:
Run. Run faster. As much as I strained my legs to move, they were immobile, like I was waist deep in quicksand.
Why can’t I move?
I tried to scream for help but my mouth was full, like it was stuffed with cotton—no sound would escape.
I felt something clutching my shoulder. No, it was someone. He was pushing me forward and then yanking me back. I tried to jerk away but he had a tight grip, like a vice.
I have to break free.
The tugging got harder, more forceful. He was calling my name— over and over. He knew my name.
“Laura, Laura.”
I jolted awake—my husband’s hand still on my shoulder.
“Honey, wake up. You’re having another bad dream.”
Slowly, I turned over in bed and looked at him—his dark brown eyes were fixated on me. I could see them clearly as the light from the bathroom brightened our bedroom.
For a month now, we had slept with this light on.
I could see the small wrinkle on his forehead. I loved that wrinkle though wished he didn’t have good reason to be so concerned. I was enduring the nightmares, but he had to deal with my tossing and mumbling in terror.
I remember when we first met—ten years ago in chemistry lab at Georgia Tech. He had walked up to me with those warm eyes and a charming, confident smile and asked, “Want to be partners?”
Two years later he took me to Stone Mountain Park, rented a small rowboat and, in the moonlight, he pulled out a diamond ring and asked me again, “Want to be partners?”
Life had seemed just about perfect.
Until now.
We looked at each other for a moment. Then he propped himself up on his elbow and said softly, “Laura, I feel so helpless. I know it’s only been a month, but...”
He hesitated.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s just as bad as that first night. After it happened. Look, I want to make you feel safe again, but I don’t know how.”
He rubbed his eyes and looked away. I waited, staring at him.
What isn’t he saying?
“I know you don’t want to see a therapist, but seeing someone doesn’t mean you’re crazy. Therapists don’t treat just crazy people. They help people who have been through traumas and you have. Hell, no one even has to know.”
He paused for a second.
“Don’t be mad at me, but yesterday I made an appointment for you. I was going to talk to you about it in the morning if you had another bad dream. I found a woman who is downtown by my office. She’s been practicing for about twenty years, got her doctorate from Emory and comes with really good patient reviews.”
He looked for my reaction and continued. “I made the appointment for you at 4:00 so we can go to dinner afterward. You know what you always say. You’ll try anything once, right?”
“I told you I don’t want to see a psychiatrist,” I pushed back. “I just need more time. I’ll bounce back. You know I almost came in the house on my own today. Besides, if I see a psychiatrist, on every job application I complete in the future, I’ll have to check the ‘Yes’ box when they ask if I’ve had mental health treatment.”
“Jesus. No you don’t. You’re too innocent sometimes.”
He gently tapped me on the nose.
“You can check the box ‘No.’ Besides, if that’s the only thing stopping you, I think you should give it a try. Her name is Barbara Cole. I’ll take you to Houston’s afterward,” he added.
I ignored the bribe. “But what can she do that you can’t? All she’ll do is listen and you do that for me already. Psychiatrists are for people who don’t have friends or husbands to talk to.”
Chris shook his head.
“Please? Do it for me.”
The tone in his voice was different—more helpless than normal. Chris had been so understanding, so comforting this past month, especially considering I had been waking him every night. How could I refuse his request?
I sighed. “Okay,” I relented. “I’ll go.”
“One visit. That’s all I’m asking. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go back. She’s a psychologist, by the way, not a psychiatrist. She does therapy, not drugs.”
He glanced at the clock. It was 3:30 a.m.
Chris grabbed Konk, my stuffed animal gorilla that I won at the state fair by outshooting him at the basketball game. He had sworn the scum running the game couldn’t take his eyes off my butt and let me win.
“Here’s Konk,” he said. “I’m going to finish my presentation since I’m up. I’ll just be in the office. Want the door open?”
“Yes,” I said as I wrapped my arms tightly around Konk.
“Hey, we’ll celebrate your first therapy visit and my signed contract, I hope, this evening.”
“You mean you hope my first visit?” I said with a playful smile.
He gave me a look—he was in no mood for jokes.
“Fine. Fine. I’ll go,” I assured.
“If you’re asleep when I leave, just come by my office after the appointment and we’ll head to dinner. Try to get some sleep. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”

About the Author


Liz Lazarus is the author of Free of Malice, a psychological, legal thriller loosely based on her personal experience and a series of ‘what if’ questions that trace the after effects of a foiled attack; a woman healing, and grappling with the legal system to acknowledge her right to self-defense.

She was born in Valdosta, Georgia, graduated from Georgia Tech with an engineering degree and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern with an MBA in their executive master’s program. She spent most of her career at General Electric’s Healthcare division and is currently a Managing Director at a strategic planning consulting firm in addition to being an author.

Free of Malice is her debut novel, set in Atlanta, and supplemented by extensive research with both therapists and criminal defense attorneys. She currently lives in Brookhaven, GA, with her fiancé, Richard, and their very spoiled orange tabby, Buckwheat.

For More Information



Giveaway

Liz is giving away a $25 B&N Gift Card & an autographed copy of FREE OF MALICE!!


Terms & Conditions:
  • By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
  • Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 B&N Gift Card or one autographed copy of FREE OF MALICE
  • This giveaway begins April 11 and ends on May 11.
  • Winners will be contacted via email on May 12.
  • Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!



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Restless by Michelle Bellon Book Blast!



We're thrilled to be hosting Michelle Bellon's RESTLESS Book Blast today!  Pick up your copy!







Title: Restless
Author: Michelle Bellon
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Pages: 204
Genre:  Contemporary Romance

You grow up. You get married. You have a family. At least, that’s what Malea Winters believes she’s supposed to do. So why is it that every time she comes close to finding that happily ever after, she runs?

When she meets Garrett Taylor, she warns him that she’s not the marrying type because history has shown that long-term relationships are not her forte. She has a tendency to leave when things get too serious; the direct result of being raised by an emotionally detached mother and a stepdad with philandering ways. So she swore off men and surrounded herself with her best friends; three quirky, funny women who are facing challenges of their own.

But Garrett is everything she’s ever looked for; charming, successful, fun, and sexy. Despite her better judgment, his persistence pays off and she finds herself falling for him.

Learning how to love and be loved will be the hardest lesson she’s ever faced. The question is, will her relationships survive that lesson?

For More Information

  • Restless is available at Amazon.


Book Excerpt:

As I walk down the aisle, avoiding eye contact with my husband-to-be, I remember the dream and feel the need to run.
I clutch the bountiful bouquet of flowers, red and white for our Christmastime wedding, and feel the sweat on my palms collect in the center. I want to rub them down the front of my dress.
But that would be unacceptable. My grandma has lovingly sewn every stitch, carefully placed every pearly bead, and worked every delicate piece of lace. It’s a work of labor and love.
Today, I am supposed to be a princess.
But as I look around at familiar faces, friends and family, watching me take this enormous step into life as a wife, as a life partner, I feel anything but princess-like.
I feel the lie. I feel the relentless pursuit of truth. Both follow me down the aisle, tapping on my shoulder and reminding me that I have no ability to live up to this responsibility.
I am quaking in my white heels. My knees are shaking. But still I march forward on the arm of the only male in my life I’ve ever thought of as a father. He isn’t really, but he’s the only man my mom brought home over the years to whom I formed any real emotional attachment before they’d split ways. Due to his philandering ways, he was out of our life more than he was in it. But when he was around, something inside of me recognized something inside of him, and I cared for him.
I swallow down my fear. It’s only nerves. It’s normal. This is the natural order of things: you grow up, you get married, you have a family. That’s how it’s done.
Then what?
I finally make eye contact with Garrett and search for…safety? Love? Answers?
Only my own fear reflects back. He can see the hesitation, the anxiety, the angst. He smiles cautiously. He’ll never admit what we both know.
Just before we reach the altar, I take one last look around. The gathering within the small church is there for only one purpose: to watch us get hitched.
I could run right now. This is my last chance. I could just turn around and make a run for it.

About the Author



Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and boyfriend, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick.

She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won four literary awards to include making finalist in the New Age category in the USA Book Awards for her latest release, The Fire Inside.  Her latest release is the contemporary romance, Restless.

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