Spotlight: I've Got a Crush on You by Lauren Blakely

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Blakely comes I’VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU, the next standalone small town romance in her bestselling Darling Springs rom com series! This spicy, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, workplace, forbidden small town romantic comedy answers the question: what happens when the guy you had a super hot one-night-stand with turns out to be your grumpy new boss/landlord! I’VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU is now available in all formats and free to read in Kindle Unlimited! Check out the excerpt below, and one-click your copy today!

My secret workplace romance starts innocently enough at a birthday party.

But when a rowdy partier knocks me into a lake and a sexy stranger comes to my rescue – my night becomes one to remember.

A night so steamy I almost forget why I’ve sworn off men after a failed workplace romance.

Trouble is, the brand new doggy daycare in Darling Springs that I’ve contracted with is owned by none other than my sexy stranger. Thanks, fate.

Sawyer turns out to be a total grump in a tailored suit, no matter how sunshine-y I am. Even when he squeezes that hard body past me as I bring donuts to work. Or when he pretends he’s not roaming his dark eyes over me as I teach Fido to sit, stay and come.

But I’m focusing on my shiny new future—my dog-training business is suddenly the hottest thing in town, thanks to a new actress client. And when I’m roped into a charity dance number, I smell an opportunity, especially when I learn my hot landlord has an alter ego and a fandom.

Turns out Mr. Serious Boss is up for dance lessons.

Then the entire Dirty Dancing experience.

Giving into our chemistry once won’t hurt. Two might be pushing it. By the seventh, it’s undeniable–I’ve got a crush on him too.

Excerpt

SAWYER

“Just like I remembered.”

Her shoulders shudder, and she sounds buzzed as she asks, “Yeah? What did you remember?”

“How good you taste. Your cinnamon scent. The way you melt when I kiss your neck,” I murmur against her soft skin, kissing the column of her throat now.

“It’s my lotion. It’s from Kind. All my lotions are. And bodywashes. I love them,” she says, breathless, babbling as she mentions the brand too, like I needed to know that. It’s sexy, though, the fact that she’s not thinking clearly enough to edit her thoughts. She’s just rambling as I kiss her. And it feels like a peek behind the curtain into her feminine world.

“Drives me crazy,” I say as I travel back up her neck, finding her mouth once more and sealing my lips over hers.

She claws at my shirt as I kiss her. I thread my hands through her hair. The song ends. The car’s quiet for a beat, the only sounds the rustling of clothes, the slide of our mouths, the staccato breaths.

When the next Sam Cooke tune begins, I stop pretending I’m willing to let this night end in the car. I break the kiss, run my thumb across her top lip, then nod toward her home. “What’s it going to be?”

She nibbles on the corner of her bee-stung lips. That just-been-kissed look is real good on her. “What are you offering?”

“You want me to surprise you again, Chloe?” A tremble seems to rush through her. I can hardly wait another second. “Let me come inside, sweetheart.”

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About the Author

A #1 New York Times Bestselling, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling, and #1 Audible Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s sexy, feel-good and witty. Her books have been featured in US Weekly and People. Lauren likes dogs, cake and show tunes and she is the vegetarian at your dinner party. 

Connect w/ Lauren:

Website: laurenblakely.com 

NL Signup: http://laurenblakely.com/newsletter  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LaurenBlakelyBooks

Instagram: http://instagram.com/laurenblakelybooks

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurenblakelybooks 

Spotlight: Nautilus by Nick Croydon

The explosive sequel to the bestselling The Turing Protocol asks a chilling question: what happens when the power to rewrite the past becomes a weapon?

Nautilus is no ordinary machine. Created by Alan Turing during World War II, it can send messages eight weeks back in time—a discovery so dangerous that Turing established strict protocols for its use. Only members of his bloodline can operate it, and only to prevent global catastrophe.

For decades, the rules have held.

Until now.

Annabelle Turing has inherited custody of Nautilus, unaware that the man she trusts most—her husband, Edward—has secrets of his own. Edward sees the machine not as a safeguard for humanity, but as the key to unimaginable wealth, influence and control.

But he isn’t the only one hunting Nautilus.

Across the globe, shadowy factions are closing in, determined to exploit the machine’s power to manipulate markets, topple governments and reshape history itself. As rival forces converge, Annabelle is thrust into a deadly race against time to protect the one invention capable of saving the world—or destroying it forever.

Because once the past can be controlled, no future is safe.

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About the Author

Nick Croydon was born in Surrey, England, and is the CEO of QBD Books Australia, the country’s largest book retail chain with 91 stores nationwide. He has more than 25 years’ experience running international publishing companies and book retail businesses across the United Kingdom and Australia. 

Writing has always run alongside the business of books. The Turing Protocol, his debut novel, became a bestseller and drew praise from some of Australia’s most celebrated thriller writers. Nautilus is his second novel.

Croydon is a father of four and husband to Esther. He and his family divide their time between Brisbane, Spain and the UK. 

Spotlight: High Five Your Spirit Guides by Katherine Marie

Imagine having a team of invisible allies, guides who protect you, cheer you on, and nudge you toward the opportunities meant for you. In Katherine Marie’s “High Five Your Spirit Guides: Manifest the Life You’ve Always Wanted with the Help of Your Spirit Guides,” you’ll learn how to recognize, connect, and partner with these powerful companions to bring you the life you deserve.

Through practical tools for recognizing signs, conducting gentle rituals, and strengthening intuition and focus through journaling and reflections, you’ll discover how spirit guides make themselves known, how to communicate with them, and how to trust their guidance. With personal stories, simple practices, and a playful, encouraging tone, this book is your roadmap to building a lasting relationship with your guides, and co-creating a life filled with alignment, abundance, and joy.

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About the Author

KATHERINE MARIE is an author and creative thinker who writes practical spiritual tools for everyday life. With a background in computers and software systems analysis, she has spent decades balancing logic with lived experience and brings a clear, practical perspective to topics often wrapped in mystery or mysticism. Rather than presenting spirituality as something distant or theoretical, Katherine focuses on practical awareness and the quiet inner nudges that most people already experience but don’t always trust.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she writes and spends time outdoors. Her work often draws on reflective practices such as journaling and tarot as tools for insight and self-reflection.

Connect:

Facebook: @KatherineMarie1111

Instagram: @KatherineMarieInnerCompass 

TikTok: @KatherineMarie1111

Spotlight: Just A Little Tempted by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde

Release Date: July 28

I never meant to fall for my boss.

When I was hired to be Simon’s assistant, everyone warned me he was impossible—brilliant, demanding, and obsessed with control. But after surviving two months of his rules and grumpy attitude, I’ve learned how to manage my boss. Maybe it’s my chaotic upbringing or the fact that I desperately need this job, but I can’t ignore the moments when his guarded edges soften… even if he pretends they don’t.

Then one nervous slip in front of a major client turns into a fake relationship neither of us can back out of. Now I’m Simon’s “girlfriend,” attending dinners, traveling for meetings, and sharing far too much close proximity with the man I’m not supposed to want. Pretending to belong to him shouldn’t feel real—but it does. And the hardest part isn’t keeping up the lie. It’s realizing I’m falling for him for real.

Buy on Amazon

Meet Carly Phillips

Carly Phillips is the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of over eighty sexy contemporary romances featuring hot men, strong women, and emotionally compelling stories her readers have come to expect and love. She is happily married to her college sweetheart and lives in Westchester County, NY. She is the mother of two adult daughters and three crazy dogs who star on her Facebook and Instagram pages. She loves social media and is always around to interact with her readers. Way back in 2002, Carly’s book, The Bachelor, was chosen by Kelly Ripa and was the first romance on a nationally televised book club. Carly loves social media and interacting with her readers. For more information on upcoming releases, sign up for her newsletter (below) and receive two free books! https://www.carlyphillips.com/subscribe-newsletter/

To learn more about Carly Phillips & her books, visit here!

Connect with Carly Phillips: https://www.carlyphillips.com/ 

Meet Erika Wilde

Erika Wilde is a Bestselling author and is best known for her super sexy Marriage Diaries series and The Players Club series, and has also co-written multiple series with Carly Phillips, her best friend and writing buddy for the past twenty years. She lives in Oregon with her husband, and when she's not writing you can find her exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest. For more information on her upcoming releases, please sign up for her newsletter (below).

Newsletter: https://erikawilde.com/

To learn more about Erika Wilde & her books, visit here!

Connect with Erika Wilde: http://www.erikawilde.comcontact@erikawilde.com

Spotlight: Jacqueline Lamba: The Forgotten Surrealist by Salomon Grimberg

About the Book

This new biography repositions Jacqueline Lamba as one of the pioneers and finest exponents of Surrealist painting. 

Jacqueline Lamba (1910-93) defied categorization. She is remembered only as the wife of André Breton, French poet, founder of Surrealism, but she was not just his spouse, she was a painter in her own right. A long overdue revaluation of her life and contribution to Surrealism has brought her out of the shadow into her rightful place. 

After divorcing Breton, she was married for 14 years to American sculptor David Hare. Lamba's extraordinary life brought her into contact with many leading artists of the period: Leonora Carrington, Alberto Giacometti, Roberto Matta, Dora Maar, Yves Tanguy, Pablo Picasso, and Diego Rivera. And as Salomon Grimberg here reveals for the first time in previously unpublished letters, she had an affair with Frida Kahlo. 

Thanks to exclusive interviews with people who knew her throughout her life, Grimberg uncovers Lamba's complex personality: often impossible to deal with, she had a habit of destroying those of her paintings with which she was not completely satisfied. But enough works survive to make an impressive oeuvre, and Grimberg interprets her painting with an authority that makes this biography essential reading for anyone interested, not just in feminism and Surrealism, but in the whole history of art in the twentieth century.  

• Written by an art expert previously the author of celebrated works on Frida Kahlo.

• Repositions Jacqueline Lamba as a leading light of 20th-century art rather than a footnote to it. 

• Plate section features numerous high-quality images of Lamba's finest extant works as well as photographs of Lamba with Breton, Dora Maar, Picasso, and others. 

• Salomon Grimberg lives in Texas.

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About the Author

Salomon Grimberg is an art historian, psychiatrist and biographer. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on Frida Kahlo and the Surrealist movement, with a distinguished body of scholarship that brings both rigorous research and deep psychological insight into the lives of modern art’s most complex figures. Jacqueline Lamba: The Forgotten Surrealist represents the culmination of years of archival research, exclusive interviews and critical engagement with Lamba’s work.

Spotlight: A Penance for Crows by Shannon Morgan

An unnerving, hypnotic, modern gothic thriller set on a remote Irish island, where an artist is caught between deadly secrets, ancient superstition, and echoing madness…

Off the southern tip of the Beara Peninsula lies Beanna Dubh, an island of savage beauty, its jagged cliffs lashed by Atlantic winds and infested by thousands of crows. Untouched by 21st-century advances, the islanders live under the strict rule of the church, while clinging to old superstitions of the crows as harbingers of disaster. To this desolate, unforgiving place Grizela Urquhart fled, seeking sanctuary from brutal bullying in her native Glasgow.

40 years on, Grizela still remains an outsider—the eccentric painter viewed with distrust and barely tolerated. The feelings are mutual, for she has discovered there are as many secrets on Beanna Dubh as there are crows.

Excerpt

Like tatters of black cloth, the crows whipped and tossed on the cruel wind, shrieking defiance at the storm amassing over the Atlantic.

As stubborn as the crows, Grizela Urquhart forged onwards, the chill in her aging bones making her long for the merry fire banked in her cottage, awaiting her return. Clutching the bag containing her easel and paints to her chest, she trudged doggedly south, along the cliff path towards the southern tip of Beanna Dubh, determined to reach the Silver Wood before nightfall.

Grizela loved the beautiful savagery of this remote, wind-swept island on the southernmost tip of the Beara Peninsula of Ireland. She loved the coves that fringed the island, dashed eternally by briny violence whatever the weather. She loved the treacherous heart of the island where heather hid peat bogs in the valley between sheer mountains. But mostly she loved the crows, their darkness in legend and nature, their curiosity, their intelligence, and their proud independence in the face of adversity.

She rarely saw the islanders on this end of Beanna Dubh; most of the three-hundred strong population lived in the more sheltered north, in the village of Abbandine. This suited Grizela. She liked the islanders well enough, most of them anyway, but she was selective with the company she kept.

In the near distance, she could make out the Widows—five standing stones teetering on the cliff edge of a narrow inlet, now dimmed to little more than tall shadows in the gloom of the winter afternoon.

Grizela squinted at the crows when their screeches stilled. They gave up their battle with the wind and plummeted over the cliff edge.

Hurrying past the Widows, she looked down at the inlet below, stung by the spray as the waves hit the cliffs with youthful vigour, an omen of the lashing the island was in for that night. The crescent of pebble-dashed shingle seemed unnaturally still beside the thrashing waves. The crows had settled there, not moving but for the wind ruffling their feathers.

Not sure what had attracted the birds’ attention, Grizela paused, her frizzled, grey hair whipping about her face, a fine sleet grating her skin. A hoarse whispering rose above the churn of air and water. Faint, but there, like the murmur of the sea gods protesting the vehemence of the storm.

The crows were all staring at a large dark shape on the narrow beach. They made no move towards it. They just stared. Unmoving. Silent.

Grizela thought it was a seal that had pulled itself out for a respite from the ocean’s snarl and thrash. Seals were a common sight on Beanna Dubh, and assuming this seal’s respite might be permanent to garner the crows’ undivided attention, she half turned to continue on her journey.

The crows croaked in unison. Just once. She stopped. Already cold, an icy finger scraped down her spine when she peered at the cove again, to find the crows had changed position. Now facing the Widows, they stared at Grizela with corvine intensity.

“You’re freaking me out,” she muttered, when the sleek heads swivelled back to stare at the dead seal. It lay oddly, sort of flattened, not a blubbery heap. A flipper flapped above it.

Grizela stepped cautiously off the path to the edge of the cliff and searched for the movement that might have been a trick of the miserly light or an errant wave. It came again in the next sea-drenched gust; the seal moved in a most unseal-like manner, rather like the snap and slap of material caught in the wind.

The problem with curiosity was it led with a decided lack of caution. Still, Grizela followed her curiosity. She quickly found the roughly hewn steps leading to the cove and was instantly soaked by the spray.

The crows hopped a little to either side, opening a small corridor for Grizela to walk through, watching her with their own insatiable curiosity.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Grizela whispered. Her words set the crows off, their croaking echoing off the sheer cliffs of the tight inlet.

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About the Author

Shannon Morgan is the author of atmospheric modern gothic novels, including In the Lonely Hours and the Goodreads Choice Award-finalist Her Little Flowers. She has had a nomadic past, involving, but not limited to, nearly being shot in Kashmir, playing a marathon ten-hour game of backgammon on the side of a road in Turkey, getting horribly sea-sick off the coast of Madagascar and milking a camel in the Sahara Desert. She now lives with her husband and sons in Wiltshire, England, and can be found online at shannonmorganauthor.com or on Twitter as @morgan_shan.