Spotlight: Skye (The Dragon Kings #4) by Kimberly Loth

Rowan Winters is completely in love. With a shifter dragon.

But the drop-dead gorgeous Skye only thinks of Rowan as her best friend. But when she turns up in his room in the middle of the night in tears, he yearns to do whatever he can to help her. Even if that means running away and letting his family think he’s dead.

Skye’s entire world turns upside down the day her scales turns black. She knows she’ll have to flee to find answers. But she wasn’t planning on Rowan coming too. She just wanted to say goodbye. He is so eager to help that she can’t leave him behind even though she knows she’ll never be able to love him in return.

Together, they fight off murderous dragons and uncover sinister plans. But can they find the answers Skye so desperately seeks? And can Rowan sacrifice everything he knows to win her heart?

Excerpt

Skye was a coward. She knew that, but she couldn’t bring herself to stay and watch Sid and Aspen commit suicide. There was no way the council would allow Aspen to become queen.

Not to mention that then Skye would have to know the exact moment when she died, because anyone who pledged loyalty to Sid would die the second he did. No, running away was better. She should have enough time to get to her parents before death came. She’d able to say goodbye.

This was her fault. Pearl had told her to keep Aspen safe. Instead she’d gone and made everything worse. Maybe if she’d kept Aspen at home, Sid would’ve been fine.

If she’d never given Sid that damn loyalty seal, she wouldn’t be this close to death. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking at that time. Part of her thought he’d make it. Another part didn’t care whether she lived or died. It wasn’t like she’d have much of a life anymore.

When Sid became King she found Everett and begged him to remove the seal that marked how much she loved him. He did and now she longer had a swirl of gold on her ankle. But Everett warned her there would be a price to pay. She gladly paid it at the time, but but she hadn’t expected to feel so empty.

For a half second she thought about heading to Everett’s instead of her parents. Maybe he could remove the loyalty seal before she died. She shook her head. How cowardly of her. The price would  not be worth it. That was for sure.

She was only fooling herself though. She would make the same decision if given the choice. Aspen was the only way they could possibly survive. When Skye dropped Aspen off , there were three possible outcomes. One, she and Sid would die and all those with loyalty seals would as well. Two, Helios, the final dragon that Sid needed to secure all the loyalty seals got to him before the council had a chance to killed him. Or three. Aspen could be become queen. She’d have to convince the council that she should be queen and pass the queen’s tests  She hoped Aspen could do it.

She felt her wings tiring. This could be the beginning of her death. She hadn’t known anyone who had died because of the loyalty seal and didn’t know how it worked. She spotted a lake below her and decided to stop and get a drink. She had to make it home.

Skye landed a little rougher than normal. This had to be the end. She staggered over to the water and took a deep drink. The water sparkled under the full moon. Skye stretched her wings out and swiveled her neck around to scratch her nose. She froze. Her wing was no longer silver.

This must be part of her death. Or at least that was what she tried to convince herself of. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she no longer felt tired. Dragons didn’t change color before they died. In fact dragons never changed color. Except when they became king. Then they turned black.

Skye spun neck around the other direction. It was more than her wings that had changed. Her whole body was now a deep coal black.

This was impossible. There was no way she could become king. Sid was king. Unless he died. Then someone else would take his place, but that someone had to be a full royal dragon and male. Of which she was neither. There had to be some huge mistake. This had to be a dream. She stuck her head in the cold water and came out again. Still black. This wasn’t possible.

Unless.

That stupid prophecy.

The one that said three kings would rise. The one that said they could come from other races. But she was still female. Something was definitely wrong. She was also still very much alive. She couldn’t go see her parents now, not like this. No, she had to go see the one dragon who could explain how this happened.

She wracked her brain trying to think of everything she’d learned about the prophecy. She loved history and so she studied a lot, but this baffled her. Nothing in the prophecy said anything about a girl.  She’d spent hours listening to Everett’s boring details about the prophecy, yet he hadn’t mentioned that females could become kings. He was so in for it.

Chapter 2

Skye changed direction and instead of heading south for the warm waters of the gulf, she flew northwest. Her mind tried to make sense of what just happened. Her anger for Everett had turned into fear of what was to come. Everett would have the answers. But she might not like the answers he gave.

She certainly didn’t like the consequences of his last answer. To never love again. That was the cost of removing the seal to Sid. She gladly gave it up. But now. Now something was missing and she ached to love again.

After an hour she flew over Yellowstone and marveled at the fact that she wasn’t dead. That meant Sid and Aspen were still alive as well. Perhaps Aspen had become queen. Skye hoped so. She liked her. Plus, if the prophecy was fulfilled, Sid would be the right leader for the job.

She flew over Sid’s house and faltered for a second. Rowan was asleep in there. Sweet Rowan. He’d become her best friend. Her heart tightened at the thought of never seeing him again. It was strange how the ache she often felt disappeared when she was around him. He made her feel human.

She didn’t know what would happen when she found Everett. But if she was a king and the prophecy was being fulfilled, she’d be too caught up in the dragon wars to even think about her human friends. She supposed it couldn’t hurt to stop and say goodbye. She owed him that. After all, he’d been there for her when no one else had been.

She dove for the house before she talked herself out of it. She wanted to feel human again, if only for a minute.

About the Author

Kimberly Loth can’t decide where she wants to settle down. She’s lived in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Utah, California, Oregon, and South Carolina. She finally decided to make the leap and leave the U.S. behind for a few years. Currently, she lives in Cairo, Egypt with her husband and two kids.

She is a high school math teacher by day (please don’t hold that against her) and YA author by night. She loves romantic movies, chocolate, roses, and crazy adventures. Kissed is her first novel.

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One mistake can change everything…forever

Beck Elliot and Tansy Calhoun were inseparable—until Tansy left Misty Bottoms, Georgia, promising to come back after she finished school. Beck stayed behind to save the family business, dreaming of the day when Tansy would return. Instead, his trust and his heart were broken when she inexplicably married another man and bore his child.

Five years later, Tansy comes home, a sadder and wiser woman. Despite his anger, Beck finds it hard to avoid her and her adorable little daughter—especially with all the busybodies of Misty Bottoms going out of their way to throw him and Tansy together, hoping a lingering spark will reignite their enduring flame…

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Spotlight: The Popish Midwife by Annelisa Christensen

In seventeenth-century London, thirteen years after the plague and twelve years after the Great Fire, the restoration of King Charles II has dulled the memory of Cromwell’s puritan rule, yet fear and suspicion are rife. Religious turmoil is rarely far from tipping the scales into hysteria.

Elizabeth Cellier, a bold and outspoken midwife, regularly visits Newgate Prison to distribute alms to victims of religious persecution. There she falls in with the charming Captain Willoughby, a debtor, whom she enlists to gather information about crimes against prisoners, so she might involve herself in petitioning the king in their name.

‘Tis a plot, Madam, of the direst sort.’ With these whispered words Willoughby draws Elizabeth unwittingly into the infamous Popish Plot and soon not even the fearful warnings of her husband, Pierre, can loosen her bond with it.

This is the incredible true story of one woman ahead of her time and her fight against prejudice and injustice.

About the Author

Annelisa Christensen was born in Sussex, took a psychology degree at the University of Stirling in Scotland, then returned to the south to partner in a fashion design company with her childhood friend, Julia. They had fun selling to shops and in street markets all over London, but dissolved the business when children came along, both believing in putting their families first. Delighted to be offered the job of laboratory technician in the local secondary school, in which she had herself been Head Girl twenty years earlier, Annelisa simultaneously wrote a magical realism series (as yet unpublished). She wrote The Popish Midwife after falling in love with Elizabeth Cellier in some 300-year-old loose pages of a trial she bought on the internet. The more she discovered about Elizabeth Cellier, the more Annelisa wanted to share this amazing woman’s story. The Popish Midwife is the result of years of research and writing.

For more information, please visit Annelisa Christensen’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Sign up for her Newsletter.

Spotlight: Worth Fighting For by Charity West

Genre: Upper YA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 17th 2016
Coastal Escape Publishing

High School senior Lily Rhodes has been in love with her brother’s best friend nearly all her life. When nineteen year old Jake joins the Marines and is shipped overseas, she worries she’ll never see him again, and wishes she’d been braver before he left. Lily vows that if Jake comes home, she’ll tell him how she feels. But when Jake is injured by an IED and is discharged from the Marines, he comes home changed, bitter and broken. Despite the fact he's loved Lily for the past three years, he no longer feels worthy of someone like her. Not one to back down from a challenge, Lily knows the best things in life are worth fighting for.

Excerpt

Lily carried the food to the kitchen and got down a plate for her father. She knew if she just gave him the containers, the food would sit uneaten on his desk. Giving him a plate and fork seemed to make a difference though. Shrimp fried rice, orange chicken, and lo-mein covered the dish. She snagged a bottle of water out of the fridge and carried it down the hall to her father’s office. The door remained open from her previous intrusion, but he was clicking away again, hard at work.

She set the plate down on his desk along with the water. Her dad didn’t break stride with his writing, looking almost feverish with his obsession. The thunder boomed overhead, and the lights flickered for a moment. It was enough to make her father pause, at least long enough to hit the save button, and then he glanced her way.

“Sorry, Lily. I didn’t realize you were there.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I brought you some dinner. I decided to go to the store first so will eat mine when I get back. The clouds coming in are getting darker, and I want to get there and back before the worst of the storm hits.”

“I should go with you.”

She knew that wasn’t what he wanted to do. The quick darting of his eyes from her to his screen and back again was all the assurance she needed that he wanted to keep working on his book. Considering the drought he’d recently been through, where he barely wrote a few hundred words a day, she knew he needed to spend his time writing while the story was speaking to him.

“It’s fine, Dad. I’ll be there and back before you know it.”

“Be careful, Lily.”

“I will,” she promised before easing out of the office and closing the door.

Lily went to her room to retrieve her purse and keys, before slipping out through the garage door and walking over to her white, gently used Honda Civic. The car had been a present from Jake and her brother for her sixteenth birthday. It had been a one-owner car, with hardly any miles on it, despite the fact it was now nearly ten years old. Several of her friends at school had received brand new cars for their birthdays that year, but Lily had thought hers was far more special, just because Jake had helped pay for it. He’d been a junior, and she had wondered where he had gotten the money, and she’d probably never find out. She knew Riley had used part of his inheritance from their grandparents.

As she backed out of the garage, the sky seemed to open up, and the heavens rained down as the storm intensified. Her wipers worked overtime as she drove the narrow, twisting road into town. The parking lot at the grocery store was nearly empty, and she wasn’t really surprised. Aside from her, who in their right mind would go shopping in this weather?

She pulled into a parking space and reached into her floorboard for an umbrella, only to realize she had taken it inside the other day and never put it back. With a groan, she rested her forehead on the steering wheel and blew out a breath. She wasn’t looking forward to getting soaked. The sky lit up with a triple streak of lightning as thunder made the ground tremble under her car. Lily pulled her hood over her head before opening the door and dashing through the rain to the front of the store.

When she stepped inside, the cool air made her shiver as she pushed back her hood. Her clothes were drenched and sticking to her body as she got a shopping cart and started down the first aisle. She didn’t want to get too much since she’d have to load the car in the rain, but she wanted to make sure there was enough food, snacks, and drinks to last at least a day or two, in case the storm didn’t break.

She tried to stay away from sweets, except for the occasional pint of ice cream, but she threw in some Oreos and a half-gallon of milk, along with some seasoned turkey breasts, a sack of potatoes, and a can of carrots for dinner tomorrow. Thinking ahead, she also grabbed a frozen pizza for lunch the next day, and then stopped in the coffee aisle to feed her father’s addiction. A twelve-pack of grape soda rounded out her shopping spree, and she headed for the checkout.

The clerk looked bored as she scanned Lily’s items and sacked them. Lily loaded the shopping cart and paid for her purchases, then pushed the cart to the door. The rain looked like it had slackened a little and she made a mad dash for the car, the shopping cart bumping and jolting over the uneven pavement. She popped her trunk and quickly loaded everything, before pushing the cart off to the side. Usually, she would put it in the cart return, but that was seven spaces away, and she was already wet enough.

Lily cranked the engine and blasted the heat, trying to chase away the chill she still felt from the cool air in the store and then getting wetter on the way to the car. Turning on her lights, she pulled out of the space and headed for home. She’d barely turned onto the road before the sky turned an ominous black and green mixture that scared the crap out of her. A moment later, the rain got so heavy that she could barely see through the windshield. The road was too narrow for her to pull over and wait for the weather to clear, but she did slow her pace and turn on her flashers.

As Lily went around a particularly sharp curve, headlights cut through the darkness and nearly blinded her, causing her to jerk the wheel. The tires slipped and slid as they tried to gain traction. Lily’s heart raced in her chest, beating so loudly she could hear it pulsing in her ears. Her hands scrambled on the wheel, trying to get control of the vehicle; the on-coming car smashed into the driver’s side of her car, knocking her off the road and down the incline. Her car tumbled and rolled, slamming Lily’s head into the window and steering wheel several times.

Finally, it came to rest at the bottom of the gorge. Blood dripped into Lily’s eyes, and she tried blinking it away. Everything blurred and swayed until it all went black.

About the Author

Charity West is a young adult/new adult romance author who has always had her head in the clouds. She had her first crush when she was four, and it lasted for six years. Then she quickly fell head over heels for another boy, until she had to move away and leave him behind. Jumping from one boy to another, she finally found a keeper when she was twenty, and she’s been married to him ever since.

By the time Charity was twelve, she was sneaking her mother’s Harlequin romances and reading them in secret when she was supposed to be asleep. Teased throughout middle school and high school for the bodice ripper covers on the books she openly read in class, she knew that one day she wanted to write her own happily-ever-afters. Subscribe to Charity West's newsletter!

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Excerpt: Waiting for Tuesday by Taylor Sullivan

All I ever wanted was a home—stability, hard walls, and roots so deep they could withstand the strongest storm. Through long hours and determination, I was finally on my way, signing contracts for my brick and mortar ship, and beginning to feel settled for the first time in my life.

But the night I met John Eaton, I felt that stability crumble. His smile was a mixture of little boy and pure devil at the same time. I knew his type, knew the sort of games that came with men like him.

So I pushed. But he pulled harder. I tried to fight it, to shove away the connection that clawed at my heart, but it was too late. Roots dug in, grew deep, and twisted. John fell for me, and I for him. He was impossible to resist. I was his.

But a secret is a dangerous thing. Held for too long, it can rip a life apart.

Destroy the man I loved.

Destroy us.

Excerpt

The rain was coming hard and fast as I stood in the middle of the shop. Row after row of pieces were laid out on the floor in front of me like a puzzle, all alphabetized, just as I’d done before. And just like last time, slot X was missing. I grabbed the box and held it upside down, shaking it a few times, praying that somewhere, slot X was hidden inside. Nothing. It was empty. Completely empty.

I lifted my glasses and rubbed my eyes. Hard. This wasn’t happening. This really wasn’t happening. I could feel the blood boiling under the surface of my skin, and I took a calming breath. You can go back to the warehouse in the morning, get a totally different unit. Or better yet, try to find something already assembled. The pressure of the last few days was crushing me. I needed sleep, I needed a vacation, a day at the beach with a mojito in my hand. But… the shop hadn’t even opened yet.

Then I heard a loud ping from behind me, echoing through the silence of the empty back room. It was a sound I’d heard a few other times in my life, but one that was never welcomed. I turned around, just in time to hear it again. The sound of water—dripping. Another drop of rain hit the metal counter in the middle of the room, and I closed my eyes. This was a nightmare. There was no way I could handle this. I was out of money, running out of product, and out of time. I could handle going to the warehouse in the morning. I could handle losing another day of work, but a leak in the roof was something I just couldn’t take.

Then it came again, the sound barely audible, but one that caused every cell in my body to explode. I picked up a piece of shelving from the floor and slammed it as hard as I could against the counter. I let out a cry, the impact so heavy it caused my palms to ache—but the shelf remained perfectly intact. I wanted to scream. I needed it broken. I needed something to take the pressure from my life. Tears fell to my cheeks, and my whole body began to shake. I lifted the shelf over my head and slammed it down again. Harder. Then again, and again, and—and someone grabbed me from behind and hauled me against their chest.

“Shhh… It’s okay, you’re okay.”

John wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me backward, holding my shaking body firm against his. I lowered my arms, letting the solid board fall in one piece to the ground. Defeated.

“You’re okay. Shhh…”

I wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to hide that part of me away. To shield the evidence of my pain. This was all I ever wanted, the thing I’d been dreaming of since I was eight years old. To own something that was mine. But every day I could feel it slipping, and I didn’t have it in me to hold on any longer. My body sagged, and he held me closer, harder, causing the vibrations in my limbs to sink into his.

I didn’t know why he was doing this. Or even why he was here. But most of all, I didn’t know why I was letting him. Things would be awkward in the morning, I knew that, but for some reason, I couldn’t pull away. I was weak and he was strong. I needed strength. I didn’t even care at what cost.

“You’re okay.”

I shook my head, feeling another tear slip into the corner of my mouth. “How do you know?” My voice was broken, hoarse. “Everything is falling apart.”

About the Author

Taylor is a contemporary romance author who loves writing stories about real people. Ones with hopes, dreams, fears, insecurities, and flaws. She loves to read as much as she loves to write, and is thrilled to share her first novel with you.

When Taylor isn’t writing, she can often be found with her nose in a book, her face behind a camera, or spending time with her husband and three young children.

Connect: Website | Twitter | Facebook

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Excerpt: Midnight Untamed by Lara Adrian

The mission was supposed to be simple. Infiltrate an enemy’s stronghold outside Rome and eliminate its leader. For a Breed warrior as lethal as Ettore Selvaggio, AKA “Savage”, stealth assassinations are only one of his many cold-hearted specialties. But the last thing Savage expects to find behind enemy lines—in his target’s bed—is a woman he once adored.

It’s been years since Savage last saw beautiful Arabella Genova. Years he’s strived to banish to his past, along with the fierce desire he once felt toward Bella . . . and the irresistible calling of her blood that stirs in him even now, despite the fact that she belongs to another male.

But when fate throws Savage and Bella together again in a race for their lives, will his long-lost love prove to be the one woman he can’t live without, or the perfect weapon to destroy him?

Excerpt

Arabella knew better than to keep Massioni waiting. He’d sent her away to fetch her scrying bowl while he entertained his boot-licking cronies in the grand salon. They were gloating over a large payout from a shipment of Red Dragon to the States and the United Kingdom—a narcotic that destroyed the minds of their own kind, the Breed, creating blood-addicted monsters from just the smallest dose. They didn’t care that their sudden windfall came at the expense of both Breed and human lives. She had learned a long time ago that Vito Massioni’s greed knew no bounds.

Nor did his violence.

That her gift had helped him amass his growing fortune, and the power that came with it, made Arabella want to retch.

How often had she thought about giving him a false reading from her scrying bowl?

How many times had she dreaded that her visions would one day prove incorrect?

But she hadn’t deceived him, not once.

And, thankfully, her visions had never been wrong.

Either of those failings would come at the cost of innocent lives. Not her own, but the people she cared about most in the world. The only family she had left now.

It was those precious lives she held close in her heart as she walked over to the cabinet across the room and retrieved the hammered gold bowl she would need for her reading downstairs. In reality, her gift would awaken when she peered into any standing pool of liquid, but Massioni insisted she use the ridiculous carnival fortune-teller’s style bowl for dramatic effect whenever she performed a public reading.

Cradling the shallow bowl in her palms, she drew the empty vessel out of the cabinet. Her own face stared back at her in the reflection on the polished gold basin—but that wasn’t all.

Behind her stood the ominous shape of someone else.

A man.

Tall, immense.

An intruder dressed entirely in black tactical gear.

Bella sucked in a startled breath.

Fear streaked through her, but before her shriek could rip up the back of her throat, a broad palm came up to cover her mouth.

Oh, God.

About the Author

Lara Adrian is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Midnight Breed vampire romance series and seven award-winning, historical romances, previously released under the pen name Tina St. John.

Lara’s Midnight Breed series is available in hardcover, mass market paperback and e-book through Random House, and in limited edition through Doubleday Book Club, Rhapsody Book Club, Book of The Month, and the Science Fiction Book Club. Unabridged audio editions are available through Tantor Media, Random House Audio, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Lara’s new releases regularly appear on all of the key bestseller lists including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. There are more than 2 million copies of the Midnight Breed novels in print in the United States.

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