Excerpt: Ascenders: Sky Punch by C.L. Gaber

Ascenders: Sky Punch Synopsis

In the Midst—a place for those who die young—there are no rules except one.

And Walker Callaghan, dead at seventeen, just broke it. She briefly revisited her earthly life . . . and the punishment is eternal. Longing for her rebel love interest, Daniel Reid, Walker finds an ally in Cass, whose attraction to her is as alive as he is. “Life is short,” he tells her. “I’m banking on eternity. With you.”

In the second book of the Ascenders Saga, a realm-jumping journey takes Walker and Daniel back to life again when they search for something buried in history. They team with students from several other schools in the middle realm including a place for teens born with oddities. It’s home to the Claires . . . beautiful, ruthless, and quite dead seventeen-year-old quads who each have a different clairvoyant gift.

Can Walker survive another adventure of an afterlife-time—or will she find herself on the downside of eternity?

Excerpt

“Quads,” Steve said. “But none of them identical in looks or size. And these girls were born with gifts.” We learned that the initials after their names reflected “a little extra” given to them by their mother Lula Pitcher.

Steve broke it down by writing their names on a white board near the table. He scribbled:
 
Claire V: Clairvoyance
Claire S:Clairsentience”
“Claire A:Clairaudience
Claire C:Claircognizance
 
It seemed that Claire V was psychic, or a seer, who regularly witnessed the future for everyone except her and her sisters. In fact, events that were forthcoming for anyone else were played out in her mind on a constant loop. Claire S could easily sense other people’s feelings because she actually “felt it for them.” The scientific way to explain it is that she could pick up on someone’s emotional state such as love, hate, low self-esteem, wigging out, etc. In turn, her emotions were scattered and constantly all over the place. She didn’t own her own feelings, but borrowed them from others.

Claire A had the incredible gift of being able to hear voices inside the minds of others via telepathy. She could now hear the voices of both the living and the dead including the exact tone. She was an expert mimic, which meant she could also speak in those voices. But along with the good voices she would hear, Claire A could also hear the voices of evil, so all this made her feel like her head was stuck inside a stereo speaker. Even the sound of silence was deafening.

Finally, there was Claire C, who had the most difficult power to explain. She was the true mystery sister because she was born with claircognizance, which meant she just knows. No one had to tell her anything. She was the Yoda of the group. Rarely wrong, although it was possible, she could easily tell future prophecies. Her gift oddly didn’t work for her sisters and their lives, but it worked for others. She was the breathing example of knowing too much for your own good.

A breathtaking beauty, the little imp ran a hand through her curly golden mane and did her best catwalk, hips swaying, as she beelined for Daniel and I. She had it down: The slight head tilt, million-watt smile, and swagger to spare. Despite the fact that she looked like a candidate for America’s Next Top Dead Model, it wasn’t the time to worry about her. So, I extended a hand in friendship or willed it to meet hers, and then stepped back a bit when she “came closer to whisper something into my ear.

“Walker, right?” she began in a honey-coated tone.

I nodded. “How do you know my name?”

“Public service announcement, Walker: Whatever it takes, whatever is in you, whatever power you have, you must use it to not go back,” Claire C warned, burying her face in my hair. “Don’t show up on the day we leave. Disappear. Run. Hide.”

But she wasn’t finished. “And then I’ll have your hot boyfriend all to myself,” the baby blonde beauty concluded with a nasty smile.

My response was silence.

Oh, really. How do you know, bitch? I thought.

“I always know, bitch,” she whispered back.”

About C.L. Gaber

C.L. GABER is the author of ASCENDERS, the first book in Ascenders SAGA. She is also the co-author of "Jex Malone." A lifelong entertainment journalist, she interviews A list film and TV stars for the New York Times wire and various other publications. C.L. lives in Nevada with her husband Ron, bonus daughter Sabrina and two unruly dogs. 

Connect with C.L. Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Spotlight: The Bouquet List by Barbara DeLeo

About the Book

He's #5 on her Bouquet List. Tall, dark...and completely forbidden.

After a too-close call with death, Yasmin Katsalos is checking some things off her Bouquet List—things to do after you thought you were going to die. Fun fashion choices? Check. Purple hair and a cute diamond nose stud? Check, check. Now she's on to item #5: a flirty fling with a man who's tall, dark, rich...and totally out of her league.

And restaurateur Lane Griffiths definitely fits the bill. 

Lane isn't just out of Yasmin's league. He's also her brother's best friend and therefore off-limits. Now that they're working together on renovations for her family's wedding hall, however, Yasmin has plenty of opportunities to bewitch, bother, and boldly seduce. He's reserved. She's relaxed. The only thing they share is a spark of attraction that's too strong to resist. But is Lane just another item on her bouquet list... or has Yasmin found something on her list that will last?

**Note: this title was originally released July 14, 2014 and has been updated to be a closed door Bliss.

Excerpt

“Do you think I’ve changed?” She realized she was interrupting his list of possible new menu choices, but if she didn’t get this seduction ball rolling soon it might never happen.

He looked up, his fork poised in midair, and his eyes sparked. “Of course. The braids you had when you were ten weren’t purple.” He stabbed at something on the plate in front of him and held it up. “You haven’t tried this squid yet. The way they’ve braised it with currants and red wine is unusual, but it works. It’s probably not a great choice for a wedding, but it’d be a nice appetizer on the regular restaurant menu.”

“Have I changed in a good way or a bad?”

“Good, of course,” he said and continued chewing, but he frowned. “But I thought you were ne before.”

Fine?

He pointed with his fork to the walls and furniture, completely oblivious to the first of her seduction techniques. “How do you think this decor works? I like the turquoise and silver color scheme to represent the colors of Greece, but I’d probably make it even more contemporary—use more glass and brushed metal but with the budget—”

“I didn’t realize you’d noticed me before.” She did the slow blink thing that Genie had insisted would be guaranteed to get his attention. It felt like she was one of those openmouthed clowns at the fair, waiting for him to put a ping-pong ball in her mouth.

There was that warm grin again. It was small and hard won, but it was worth the wait. “I noticed you when you followed Nick and me around, wanting to know how our toy guns worked, pleading with us to help you with one of your experiments.”

She took another mouthful of the water and let her shoulders relax as the bubbles tickled the roof of her mouth. He’d been surprised when she said she wouldn’t have a glass of wine. She’d thought about disclosing her illness, but she still wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t tell her parents, or worse, stop her from being involved at all.

“I noticed you all the time.” There, she’d said it. She held her breath.

“Why, because you were wondering if I’d try to put a frog down your back?”She didn’t answer, just stared at him the way Genie had promised would have him begging for her to touch him. He looked up and the expression on his face changed and he gave a small cough. “Don’t tell me you had a

Was his emphasis on “crush” because he was completely horrified by the concept, or because he’d been hoping for so long that she’d felt that way that he couldn’t believe she’d finally said it?

About the Author

Barbara DeLeo’s first book, co-written with her best friend, was a story about beauty queens in space. She was eleven, and the sole, handwritten copy was lost years ago, much to everyone’s relief. It’s some small miracle that she kept the faith and is now living her dream of writing sparkling contemporary romance with unforgettable characters.

After completing degrees in Psychology and English then travelling the world, Barbara married her winemaker hero and had two sets of twins.

She still loves telling stories about finding love in all the wrong places, with not a beauty queen or spaceship in sight.

Connect with Barbara: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Spotlight: Calling It by Jennifer Doyle

About the Book

Baseball player Nathan Hawkins needs to get away from Chicago. After a near career-ending car accident and with paparazzi surrounding his penthouse, Nate can only think of one place to go: home. But when he finds his old apartment occupied by a half-naked woman wielding a baseball bat, he's not sure what to think...except that maybe his luck has finally changed for the better.

Librarian Dorie Donelli never thought she'd get to meet her fantasy man in person—much less while she’s wearing her bathrobe. To her surprise, her nearly naked run-in with Nate leads to more unclothed encounters. But Dorie is sure their fling is only temporary. As long as she remembers he’ll be gone once his life gets back on track, she won’t get hurt. In the meantime, she throws herself into enjoying their three weeks together before he has to report for spring training and go back to his old life.

For Nate, being with Dorie is the only time in months that he finds himself smiling. Laughing. And he has no intention of letting that go. He might even be falling in love…if only Dorie will let him say the words. What they have isn’t just a dream, but the start of a dream come true.

Excerpt

It wasn’t until Nate looked down to turn off the phone that he remembered where he was—that the woman who lived here was down the hall. Hell, she’d probably barricaded herself in the bathroom in order to keep a locked door between her and the stranger who’d barged in on her in the middle of the night.

And ate her dinner, he thought with a quiet laugh.

He’d give her back her phone and let her know he was leaving. Nowhere to stay, but he had a very expensive tiny car he could sleep in.

He found her in the bedroom, changing the sheets, which he would have told her she didn’t have to do if his heart hadn’t just lodged itself directly into his throat, cutting off any possibility of speech. Her pajama pants and T-shirt weren’t nearly as revealing as the robe had been, but her bending over the bed and straightening out the corner stirred up something deep inside of him. And now the only thing running through his mind was how soft her hair would be when he wrapped it around his hand; how warm and wet she’d be when he buried himself inside her.

“Christ, woman,” he groaned. He grabbed the doorjamb above his head and he clutched it so hard he practically splintered the wood.

She gasped as she straightened up and spun around, her hand flying to her chest. “I was… I was just…”

She bit her lip and sank down until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her eyes met his, and he had to tell himself he couldn’t take her right here. He needed to focus on climbing out of this hole—he didn’t have the time to fall further in, no matter how enjoyable that might be.

But he couldn’t look away.

Her eyes were a deep dark brown, the same color as the hair piled on top of her head. He wanted to trace the golden skin along her collarbone to the hollow of her throat, wanted his tongue on every part of her. And the glasses she now wore almost undid him.

If she’d been wearing those with the robe? When she’d hiked that bat up over her shoulder?

Holy. Shit. Turned out he liked a woman who would take him on without even blinking an eye. Who knew?

He especially liked it when her interested gaze traveled down his chest, past his waist… He liked it too much, actually. Only the quickly summoned thought of David Ortiz slamming into him at home plate stopped him from embarrassing himself in a way he hadn’t since he was practically a kid.

Even that almost wasn’t enough when she said, “I, um, changed the sheets. So you can take the bed.”

All control vanished as the words just came pouring out of his mouth. “The only way I take the bed is if I take you in it with me.”

His heart nearly raced its way out of his chest in the seconds before she replied, “I bet you say that to all the girls.” Laughter danced in her eyes and a wicked grin came over her face when her eyes again dropped to his cock and then quickly came back up. She bit her bottom lip before whispering, “Hungry?”

Miguel Cabrera. Adrian Beltre. Derek fucking Jeter.

He gripped the doorjamb tighter.

“I could eat,” he answered as evenly as he could manage.

For a moment they just stayed where they were, staring.

When she stood and walked toward him, he almost blinked. This was a dream. It had to be. Or some elaborate setup that Pete had come up with in order to get Nate’s mind off everything else. Put this fantasy of a woman in front of him—feisty and looking so innocent and cute while she offered up anything he wanted to take—until he was so goddamn spent he could finally get over himself and start living his life again.

Except then she brushed past him as she walked out of the room, pausing only to whisper into his ear, “I think you need another minute.”

About the Author

A big believer in happily ever afters, Jen Doyle decided it was high time she started creating some. Jen is a member of the Romance Writers of America, as well as a member of the New England, New Jersey Romance Writers and Music City Romance Writer chapters of RWA. She is represented by Sarah E. Younger of the Nancy Yost Literary Agency. She has an M.S. in Library and Information Science and, in addition to her work as a librarian, has worked as a conference and events planner as well as a Communications and Enrollment administrator in both preschool and higher education environments (although some might say that there is very little difference between the two; Jen has no comment regarding whether she is one of the “some”).

CALLING IT is her first book, the first of two which will be published by Carina Press in 2016. It was the winner of The Beacon, the Finish the Damn Book, and the Melody of Love 2014 contests in the Contemporary Romance category, and was also the Contemporary Romance winner as well as the Grand Prize Winner of the 2014 Gateway to the Best contest.

Connect with Jen:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Spotlight: The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt

About the Book

A charming and intimate collection of correspondence between #1 New York Times bestselling author Anderson Cooper and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, that offers timeless wisdom and a revealing glimpse into their lives.

Anderson Cooper's intensely busy career as a journalist for CNN and CBS' 60 Minutes affords him little time to spend with his ninety-one year old mother. After she briefly fell ill, he and Gloria began a conversation through e-mail unlike any they had ever had before—a correspondence of surprising honesty and depth in which they discussed their lives, the things that matter to them, and what they still want to learn about each other.

Both a son's love letter to his mother in her final years and an unconventional mother's life lessons for her grown son, The Rainbow Comes and Goes offers a rare window into their close relationship and fascinating lives. In these often hilarious and touching exchanges, they share their most private thoughts and the hard-earned truths they've learned along the way. Throughout, their distinctive personalities shine through—Anderson's darker outlook on the world is a brilliant contrast to his mother's idealism and unwavering optimism.

An appealing blend of memoir and inspirational advice, The Rainbow Comes and Goes is a beautiful and affectionate celebration of the profound and universal bond between a parent and child, and, like Tuesdays with Morrie, a thoughtful reflection on life and love, reminding us of the precious knowledge and insight that remains to be shared, no matter what age we are.

About the Author

Anderson Cooper is the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN and a correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes. He has won numerous journalism awards and nine Emmys, and his first book, Dispatches from the Edge, was a number one New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

Gloria Vanderbilt is an American artist, writer, and designer. Her artwork can be found at GloriaVanderbiltfineart.com. She is the author of eight books and has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Elle. She lives in New York City.

Excerpt: Her Secret, His Surprise by Paula Altenburg

About the Book

Conflict of interest is an understatement…

Since being disowned by her strict father, Cass Stone has spent her adulthood trying to prove him wrong. Her drive has led to more success than her family ever thought she’d achieve, and life is looking great. Not even an incredible and mysterious one night stand that leaves her a single mom can trip her up...until the father of her baby stumbles back into her life, as sexy as ever.

Logan Alexander hasn’t forgotten the night he spent with Cass two years ago, but he never expects to end up undercover as her assistant. His job saves lives—like it should have saved his brother—and he can’t afford complications. It’s difficult enough to maintain his cover as a carefree wanderer when he realizes his attraction to Cass hasn’t faded...and then he meets Cass’s daughter.

**Note: this title was originally released July 14, 2014 and has been updated to be a closed door Bliss.

Excerpt

She might as well go for outrageous in answer to his question. She’d stumbled over the fake name, and there was no way he hadn’t noticed because he didn’t seem stupid. Besides, she’d picked the lamest one imaginable. She could blame that much on the alcohol.

“I just got out of prison,” she said. She let out a dramatic sigh as she braced her elbow on the bar and planted her chin in her palm. “You have no idea what a relief it is to finally meet a good-looking man who isn’t dressed in a Corrections Canada uniform.”

His eyes lit up like twin blue lasers as he played along. “Good-looking, huh? What were you in for?”

“Overenthusiasm with a bullwhip and handcuffs. Something might have been mentioned about ‘inflicting permanent physical and emotional scars on the victim.’”

He sniffed in disgust. “The guy was a sissy if he couldn’t handle a little domination.”

She drained the last of her drink and slid the empty glass across the bar toward him. She lifted her chin, sat up straight on the stool, and met those twin laser beams head on. “Who says it was a guy?”

“Now I’m intrigued.” He took the glass but didn’t offer her another. Instead, he got out the fountain gun and filled two tall tumblers with club soda and ice. He passed her one, then tapped the bottom of his to the side of hers. “Cheers. Good luck staying straight with your probation.”

About the Author

Multi-published author Paula Altenburg has written short contemporary romance, as well as fantasy and paranormal romance, for publishers Entangled, Tule, and Tor. Her Spy to Have, the first book in her new and exciting Spy Games series, marks her 13th published work of fiction. She lives in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband and two sons. Once a manager in the aerospace industry, she now enjoys working from home and writing fulltime.

Connect with Paula: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Spotlight: Off The Hook by Laura Drewry

About the Book

Welcome to The Buoys, a West Coast haven where love comes in with the tide. Perfect for readers of Jill Shalvis and Susan Mallery, the Fishing for Trouble series features three unforgettable brothers—each of whom is a great catch.

Major league pitcher Liam O’Donnell knows his best days are probably behind him, but that doesn’t mean he’s ready to retire and become a fishing guide. Still, after all the time he’s spent chasing his dreams, he owes it to his brothers to pull his weight around the lodge. The Buoys is their father’s legacy, and they can’t let some developer take it from them. The one snag Liam isn’t counting on is a blast from the past: his ex-wife.

The moment Kate Hadley steps out of the seaplane, she knows this assignment is going to be trickier than she thought. She has to persuade the owners to sell—and one of them is Liam O’Donnell. Ten years ago, she made the biggest mistake of her life when she married Liam during a fling in Vegas. Now he’s her only lifeline in the middle of nowhere. Kate’s trying to keep things cool, but Liam just reminds her of the scorching few nights they spent together—and tempts her to make new memories that are just as steamy as the old.

They were almost to her cabin when she shocked the hell out of him by slipping her hand under his arm and nudging his shoulder with hers.

“You’re still a hotshot pitcher, you know. Don’t talk about that in the past tense.”

Liam blinked hard, then leaned in and pressed a slow kiss against her cheek. Half an inch, that’s how close he was to those soft, warm lips he remembered all too well, but no matter how much he ached to taste them again, he forced himself to pull back and smile down at her.

Besides his agent—who didn’t count, because Liam paid him to say it—Kate was the first and only one to even suggest he might have something left, and if she’d said it any other time or any other way, he might not have believed she was sincere.

But looking at her now, with her foot up on the porch, ready to go inside, there wasn’t the slightest trace of doubt in her eyes, just those damn bits of amber flickering like little beacons.

“I, uh . . .” Blowing out a hard breath, Liam shoved both hands through his hair, locked his fingers together, and took a step back. “I better go. It’d really screw things up here if we woke up married tomorrow.”

“Right. Good thinking,” she said, her mouth curling into a slow, knowing smile. “’Cause I promise you this, I won’t be nearly as nice the next time you divorce me.”

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author, Laura Drewry had been scribbling things for years before she decided to seriously sit down and write. After spending eight years in the Canadian north, Laura now lives back home in southwestern British Columbia with her husband, three sons, a turtle named Sheldon, and an extremely energetic German shepherd. She loves old tattered books, good movies, country music, and the New York Yankees.

Connect with Laura:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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