Spotlight: Shopping for a CEO’s Wife by Julia Kent

Shopping for a CEO’s Wife
Julia Kent
(Shopping for a Billionaire, #12)
Publication date: April 25th 2017
Genres: Adult, Romance

Snowbound. Sounds so romantic, with visions of cuddling before a roaring fire, hot chocolate spiked with brandy, and a secret elopement.

Wait. What?

My fiancé’s father won’t stop trying to turn our pending wedding into a three-ring media circus so he can get free publicity for his family’s Fortune 500 company. My mother has decided she’s done with All Things Wedding and asks her teacup Chihuahua for mother-of-the-bride advice.

They’ve all gone certifiably mad.

Then the stress from the wedding puts my mother in the hospital, I scream at my future father-in-law in front of a camera crew and the video goes viral, and the romantic wedding that started with Andrew’s grand Pride and Prejudice proposal looks less like Jane Austen and more like Dostoyevsky.

So what do you do when you’re a fixer and you can’t fix something?

You give up on it.

Not on Andrew, silly.

The wedding.

Shopping for a CEO’s Wife is the 12th book in Julia Kent’s New York Times bestselling Shopping series. As Shannon and Declan enjoy their newlywed bliss, Andrew’s father wants to exploit Amanda and Andrew’s nuptials, much to Amanda’s chagrin. Can she learn to stand up to her future father-in-law and fight for what’s right? But the real question is: will Spritzy the teacup Chihuahua end up being a flower girl?

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PLUS the audiobook is on sale at Nook and Google Play for $4.95!

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EXCERPT:

Experiencing a season together for the first time when you’re in a new relationship is a rite of passage. For instance, my idea of a fun winter activity involves reading under a thick, fuzzy blanket, snuggling up to a roaring fire, and drinking hot chocolate.

Andrew, on the other hand, likes to race down a snow-covered mountain at speeds that would qualify him for the Indy 500.

Guess where we are now?

“I am not going down that double black diamond trail. No way,” I declare, staring at an incline of doom on this mountaintop in Vermont. As I stare down the slope, I wonder what kind of sick bastard planted thirty-foot giant pine trees in the middle of a ski trail.

The sun is shining on this fine Saturday in December. You can’t see my engagement ring, which is hidden by gloves so thick, I might as well box instead of ski. Warming packets tucked away in pockets near the wrists aren’t really helping, because in my terror, all the blood in my body has gone to my gut, which is currently screaming “Run away! Run away!” while leaving my hands and feet to turn into frozen concrete.

Andrew’s response?

A grin.

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire). She lives in New England with her husband and three sons in a household where the toilet seat is never, ever, down.

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Spotlight: Magical Bullet Journal & Planner by Tish Thawer

Magical Bullet Journal & Planner
Tish Thawer
Publication date: May 10th 2018

Embrace the energy all around you as you utilize the pages within to create a personal brand of magic all your own.

With correspondence pages including The Wheel of the Year, The Zodiac, The Moon Phases, and more, you can let your imagination fly as you fill in the blank pages to plan out your magical year.

A magical bullet journal and planner inspired by Author Tish Thawer’s Witches of BlackBrook series.

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Author Bio:

2017 - #1 Bestseller in Historical Fiction (Witches of BlackBrook)
2017 - Top 100 Bestselling in Paid Kindle Store (Witches of Blackbrook)
2015 - Best Cover - Penned Con (The Witches of BlackBrook)
2015 - Readers Choice Award - My New Favorite Book Awards (The Witches of BlackBrook)

Bestselling and Award Winning Author, Tish Thawer, writes paranormal romances for all ages. From her first paranormal cartoon, Isis, to the Twilight phenomenon, myth, magic, and superpowers have always held a special place in her heart.

Tish is known for her detailed world-building and magic-laced stories. Her work has been compared to Nora Roberts, Sam Cheever, and Charlaine Harris. She has received a RONE Award nomination (Reward of Novel Excellence), as well as nominations for Best Cover, Reader’s Choice, and Author of the Year (Fantasy, Dystopian, Mystery).

Tish has worked as a computer consultant, photographer, and graphic designer, and is a columnist for Gliterary Girl media and has bylines in RT Magazine and Literary Lunes Magazine. She resides in Arizona with her husband and three wonderful children and is represented by Gandolfo, Helin, and Fountain Literary Management.

You can find Tish on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorTishThawer

A common FAQ: "How do you pronounce her last name?"

Answer: Think "Bower" or "Thow-er". It's Persian!

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Spotlight: Building Your Empowered Steps by LM Preston

Building Your Empowered Steps is your guide and personal mentor in making your life into the experience you desire. A tool to use to redirect your way of thinking about your ability to change and your worth in reaching for it through active exercises and simple bites that when taken can guide you in building your dreams and aspirations, one step at a time.

Excerpt

Empowered Steps is a quick, easy to read roadmap for making your wildest dreams become your reality. This book should work as an active reading guide that helps you realize and create the adventures that you want to shape your life experience.

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About the Author

LM Preston is an author, an engineer, a professor, a mother and a wife. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures.

Connect: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog

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Read an excerpt from Aiden by Melanie Moreland

Three young men meet in university and form a lifelong friendship. 

Their pasts dictate the men they are, but their present shapes their future. 
What happens when these men meet the one person they are destined to be with? Can they fight their feelings and walk away? Or will they each succumb and learn the sweet agony of love? 

Aiden

Haunted by memories of his past, Aiden plays the part of the happy-go-lucky friend. Always ready with a teasing smile or a joke, he is good at hiding his pain. 
Using his impressive physique as a shield, he keeps his past buried beneath his rugged exterior.
Except, one woman sees through his façade. 
Her green eyes see too much, even as her body tempts him. 
Even as his heart yearns for her.
Cami is determined to make him realize that he is worthy of being loved. 
He pushes her away at every turn, yet finds himself unable to keep her at arm’s length. 
Who will win this battle of love?

Excerpt

“I need to take you home, Sunshine.”

“Here,” she pleaded. “Don’t make me wait.”

My cock was in total agreement with her. Frantically, I looked around, finding a small shed a few rows over. Still holding her, I headed in that direction, rounding the corner to the back of the building. It was shaded and secluded, away from everyone.

“You have to be quiet.”

“You need to be fast.”

“Not an issue, baby. Trust me.”

Minutes later, I’d buried myself inside her. She cried out softly, her head falling back on the rough wood wall. I was out of control, pounding into her, chasing my release, and desperate for hers.

“Give me your mouth.”

She lifted her face, and I captured her lips, kissing her hard, frantic, and controlling. The worry I had been feeling, the odd contentment of having her with me every day without acting on my feelings, was too much. I gripped her hips, sinking as deep as I could go, almost growling in my need. She stiffened, her fingers digging into my shoulder, tightening around me.

“Yeah, baby, like that,” I praised her. “Just like that. Come for me.” I buried my face into her neck, my lips by her ear. “Come all over me. Right now.”

She whimpered and shuddered, her body taut as she rode out her orgasm. I drove into her again, my balls tightening and pleasure spiking through my spine. Her name broke from my lips as I came, and my body stilled with the strength of my orgasm.

We stayed connected until we both stopped shaking. Gradually, I lowered her to the ground and helped her pull up her jeans, before yanking mine back into place. I slipped my fingers under her chin, making her meet my gaze.

“Okay, Sunshine?”

Her eyes glowed, her smile wide. “I am.”

“I still need to get you home.”

“I’m good with that.”

We walked to the bike hand in hand, grinning. I made sure her helmet was on correctly, she was seated properly, and then I swung my leg over the bike. She wrapped her arms around my waist, leaning into my back with a sigh.

“Hold tight,” I instructed, covering her hands with mine for a brief moment. “Don’t let go.”

She increased her grip in reply.

I ignored the small voice in my head.

“Ever.”

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About the Author

New York Times/USA Today bestselling author Melanie Moreland, lives a happy and content life in a quiet area of Ontario with her beloved husband of twenty-seven-plus years and their rescue cat Amber. Nothing means more to her than her friends and family, and she cherishes every moment spent with them. 

While seriously addicted to coffee, and highly challenged with all things computer-related and technical, she relishes baking, cooking, and trying new recipes for people to sample. She loves to throw dinner parties, and also enjoys travelling, here and abroad, but finds coming home is always the best part of any trip. 

Melanie loves stories, especially paired with a good wine, and enjoys skydiving (free falling over a fleck of dust) extreme snowboarding (falling down stairs) and piloting her own helicopter (tripping over her own feet.) She's learned happily ever afters, even bumpy ones, are all in how you tell the story. 

Connect: Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter: @MorelandMelanie | Instagram

Read an excerpt from A Slave of the Shadows by Naomi Finley

In 1850 Charleston, South Carolina, brutality and cruelty simmer just under the genteel surface of Southern society. In an era where ladies are considered mere property, beautiful and headstrong Willow Hendricks’ father has filled her life with turmoil, secrets, and lies.

Her father rules her life until she finds a kindred spirit in spunky, outspoken Whitney Barry, a northerner from Boston. Together these Charleston belles are driven to take control of their own lives—and they are plunged into fear and chaos in their quest to fight for the rights of slaves. Against all odds, these feisty women fight to secure freedom and equality for those made powerless and persecuted by a supposedly superior race.

Only when they’ve lost it all do they find a new beginning.

Book 1 presents Willow and Whitney—and the reader—with the hardships the slaves endure at the hands of their white masters.

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Willow

CHARLESTON, 1850

A shiver went through me—I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling of being watched. I scanned the hillside overlooking my father’s plantation before slipping my foot into the stirrup on my buckskin Arabian mare––a recent gift from my father––and hoisted myself up. Casting another glance around and seeing no one, I summed up my case of the jitters as my imagination.

The month of March had rolled in and brought with it a heat wave. The sun beat down on me, and sweat trickled down my back as I sat in the saddle, drinking in the beauty of Livingston Plantation. I admired the ancient oak trees framing the lane leading to the front of the plantation. Evergreen vines with fragrant yellow flowers climbed the massive iron gates guarding the entry. Great white pillars expanded the front veranda, extending through the second-floor balcony with its wrought-iron railings. Well-manicured gardens surrounded the main house. It was one of the grandest sea-island cotton and rice plantations in Charleston, and I felt a sense of pride in its splendor.

I glanced out over the fields and noted that our overseer, Jones, was making his rounds. A few of the slave children were also moving through the fields, offering the field hands water to quench their thirst. Our dog Beau had found himself some shade under a moss-covered angel oak tree, where he lay panting.

My horse stirred and stomped an impatient hoof. “All right, let’s go,” I said, lightly kicking my heels into her sides. She took off at a full gallop.

I’d left my hair loose and the warm, refreshing breeze blew my chestnut tresses out behind me, teasing the tips up from my waist and tugging the rest out to follow. As we sped over the countryside the tension in my neck and shoulders slowly released. My jaw, clenched since the morning argument with Father over the discipline of a slave, relaxed.

Father had already been at the dining room table, reading the newspaper, when I came down to breakfast this morning. He’d looked over his wire-rimmed reading glasses at me as I entered and smiled a firm smile as he folded his paper. “Good morning, Willow.” He ran a hand through his thinning blond hair. He was a handsome, ruggedly built man, over six feet tall, with green eyes that twinkled when he was amused. My unease in his presence was constant, and instilled in me as a child. My father was definitely a no-foolishness type of man.

“Good morning, Father,” I said out of respect, and took my seat at the opposite end of the table.

“I’m going in to town. I have to go over our shipment with Captain Gillies before it leaves the warehouse for London today. While I’m gone, I need you to handle a situation with the carpenter’s boy, Parker. He was caught sneaking eggs from the henhouse this morning, and Jones is too busy overseeing the south field fence repairs to handle it.”

“Surely we can spare a few eggs, Father. What harm is there in that?” I avoided his stare, instead looking up at Henrietta, my mammy and the only mother figure I’d ever known, as she filled my cup with piping-hot coffee.

“Willow, don’t try my patience today. Do as you’re told and be a respectable daughter.” He gave me a stern look as he took a bite of his toast.

Knowing better than to question his authority, I took a long sip of my coffee and sighed. Mammy smiled fondly at me as she headed back into the kitchen.

I am the only child of Charles Hendricks. My mother died when I was a few years old. I don’t remember her. No portraits of her hang in the mansion, and talk of her is forbidden. Why? I’ve never been told.

Last fall, in my seventeenth year, when I returned from my studies abroad, Father informed me it was time I took on all responsibilities as the lady of Livingston. I was your typical Southern belle on the surface, which pleased my father, but my wayward opinions gained his disapproval. He often stated that I needed to be an example of perfection, as others were watching, judging him on how he was raising me. I had grown frustrated over the last few years with my lack of control over my own life. What did I care what some old busybodies had to say? Father would remind me that I was a woman and like a child, I was to be seen and not heard. Women in the South are barely above the slaves. The men consider us mere property and often treat us as such.

Slowing my horse to a trot, I guided her to a nearby creek for a drink and wiped the sweat from my brow. How was I going to deal with Parker in a way that would satisfy my father’s request for discipline?

“Oh, bother,” I complained aloud, annoyed with the whole lot of men.

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About the Author

Naomi lives in Northern Alberta. Her love for travel means her suitcase is always on standby while she awaits her next plane ticket and adventure. Her love for history and the Deep South is driven by the several years she spent as a child living in a Tennessee plantation house. She comes from a family of six sisters. She married her high school sweetheart and has two teenage children and two dogs named Ginger and Snaps.

Creativity and passion are the focus of her life. Apart from writing fiction, her interests include interior design, cooking new recipes, throwing lavish dinner parties, movies, health, and fitness.

A Slave of the Shadows is her first novel.

For more information, please visit Naomi Finley’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

A Slave of the Shadows

Spotlight & Giveaway: Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars, and Scoundrels

Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars, and Scoundrels (Girl Friday, May 2018) by Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao, is a memoir of revolution and survival. Claire relates the first-person story of her mother, Isabel, who grew up in Shanghai during the glamorous 1930s and ’40s, benefitting from a family legacy blessed by China’s empress dowager.
 
Despite Isabel’s relative privilege, and the scholarly calm of her beloved father, the family cannot escape the radical changes sweeping across China. At just eighteen years old Isabel leaves home for Hong Kong, not realizing that she will make it her home—and that she will never see her father again. Meanwhile, the family she has left behind struggles to survive, only to have their world shattered by the Cultural Revolution.
 
The story that unfolds in these pages describes Isabel’s remarkable return to Shanghai fifty years later with her daughter, Claire, to confront their family’s past. During their deep dive into five generations of history, they discover secrets Claire could never have imagined: a world filled with love and betrayal, kidnappers and concubines, glittering pleasure palaces and underworld crime bosses.

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About the Authors

ISABEL SUN CHAO’s childhood in Shanghai coincided with the last eighteen years before Mao came to power. She left on what she thought was a holiday in 1950 and never saw her father again. She has since lived in Hong Kong, where she worked for more than thirty years as a cultural affairs specialist in the US Consulate General. Now in her eighties, Isabel is fully retired, and most days can be found exercising her skills and diplomacy at the mahjong table.
 
CLAIRE CHAO is Isabel’s daughter, a writer with more than thirty years’ management experience for companies including Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston and Hill & Knowlton. Avenue magazine designated her one of the “500 Most Influential Asian Americans,” and Hong Kong Tatler named her to the “500 List” of “Who’s Who in Hong Kong.” She graduated with highest honors from Princeton University. She lives in Honolulu with her husband and two dogs.

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