Spotlight: Dangerous Game by L.P. Dover

Dangerous Game
L.P. Dover
(An Armed & Dangerous/Circle of Justice Crossover Novel, #1)
Publication date: November 18th 2019
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author L.P. Dover comes the crossover fans having been waiting for! Beloved characters from her Armed & Dangerous and Circle of Justice novels come together in this tantalizing new series!

For years, my family was on top.
Ruthless.
Respected.
Feared.

That all changed with the death of my father. As I moved into the position of power over the Corsino empire, enemies to the family tried to take over my city. They thought I would be weakened by my loss. They don’t know me.

My name is Dominic Corsino, and I have a ravenous appetite for money, power, and women. The last of which I pushed aside when Faith Hilliard, a close family friend, turned up in need of help. I’ve always wanted her, yet couldn’t bring myself to involve her in the dark savagery of my world. Now, she’s within my grasp once more. If I didn’t fear her running from my brutal truth, I would have already tasted her sweet temptation.

But the time for hesitation passes when a fighter in my underground ring is murdered. With my family name at stake, I can no longer hide who I am and what I’m capable of. It’s all coming down to a one winner-takes-all match. If I walk away with the prize, the threats against the Corsinos will be crushed. If I lose, our entire empire will crumble.

It’s a dangerous game … and I’m ready to play.

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EXCERPT:

The fight was almost done. Dominic’s fighter didn’t have a single drop of blood on him. All it took was a couple more punches and the Salvatore fighter was on the mat, his face a swollen, bloody mess.

Sam hooted and hollered in celebration, prodding me to celebrate with him. “Come on, Faith. Your team just won.”

If only I’d known I had a team. I stood with him and clapped along with everyone in the crowd. Marco handed out the stacks of money to those who made the right bets, and once that was done, he took the largest amount of cash over to Dominic and handed it over. I’d never seen that much money before.

“This seriously can’t be legal,” Sam said, gazing around in awe.

“That doesn’t bother you?” I countered. If he only knew the things I did.

Judging by the look on his face, it didn’t. “Not at all,” he said, shaking his head. He was starstruck. The room was filled with some of the richest people in New York City. With the right connections, his brewery could skyrocket. It was scary how money could blind you.

Tons of people walked up to Dominic to congratulate him and he met them all with a smile on his face. There were even a couple of women who tried to rub up on him and he moved away without giving them a second notice. Deep down it gave me a level of satisfaction to see that, but it still didn’t change the fact that he kept a huge secret from me.

“Why are you standing over here and not with Dominic?” Sam asked, nodding over at Dominic. I met his gaze and when I didn’t answer, he sucked in a breath. “Oh my God, you didn’t know about all of this, did you?”

I shook my head. “Dominic failed to mention it.”

His eyes widened. “What the hell? I’m so sorry. Do we need to go?”

“Probably. I don’t want him knowing I’m here.” A part of me wanted to go right up to Dominic so he’d know I was there, but the other wanted to test him, to see if he’d ever tell me the truth. However, it didn’t look like I’d get to do either of those things. You know how in the movies there would be a crowded room and the two lovers were destined to make eye contact? That was exactly what happened. Dominic found me from across the room and froze. My heart stopped and everything around me ceased to exist. There was no sound, only the pounding of my pulse in my ears.

Sam grabbed my arm. “Faith! What do we do?”

The spell had broken, and I sucked in a breath. By now, Reed had seen me and both him and Dominic tried to get through the crowd. It wasn’t the right time or place to confront him. I squeezed Sam’s arm. “You can stay here, but I have to go. Thank you for tonight.”

Turning on my heel, I hurried toward the door, but I didn’t get far before someone stepped in my way. “I should’ve known you’d find your way down here.”

Dominic and Reed still hadn’t managed to get through all the people, but I was running out of time. I looked up at Isaiah who had a smug grin on his face. “Yeah, well, I’m resourceful like that.” I tried to step past him, but he blocked me again. “Seriously, Isaiah, you need to get out of my way.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re not thinking of running off, are you?”

I wasn’t the type to run away from anything. I faced my problems head on. Huffing, I pursed my lips. “Actually, I want to go to my room. In a matter of minutes, Dominic will be pushing through that swarm of people,” I said, pointing at the mob behind me. “And when he does, I don’t want to be here. He can find me upstairs.”

Isaiah’s gaze narrowed, but then he nodded. “Okay. I’ll make sure you get up there.”

In other words, he probably didn’t believe me and had to make sure I didn’t try to run away. Instead of going to the door I came in, Isaiah led me to a red door at the far end of the room. Once we made it through, there was a long hallway and a set of elevators. Things were about to change. I could feel it.

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author L. P. Dover is a southern belle living in North Carolina with her husband and two beautiful girls. Before she began her literary journey she worked in periodontics, enjoying the wonderment of dental surgeries.

She loves to write, but she also loves to play golf, go on mountain hikes and white-water rafting, and has a passion for singing. Her two youngest fans expect a concert each and every night before bedtime, usually Christmas carols.

Dover has written countless novels in several different genres, but her favorite to write is romantic suspense. However, she has found a new passion in romantic comedy, especially involving sexy golfers. Who knew the sport could be so dirty and fun to write about.

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Playlist for Stolen Princess by Nikki Jefford

Thank you to Deissy Rubi Hermunslie and Renee Jean for helping compile this list! And be sure to check out “Monster” by Pot & Kettle which was specially commissioned by the authors of The Monster Ball Anthology year one (which is where the Stolen Princess prequel novella originated).

Ingrid Michaelson – Pretty

Florence + the Machine – Sky Full Of Song

Jillian Jacqueline – God Bless This Mess

The Maine – Forever Halloween

Pot & Kettle – Monster

David Bowie – As the World Falls Down (Labyrinth)

Fantasia – Falling in Love

Evanescence – Sweet Sacrifice

Maggie Rogers – Give a Little

Lorde – Team

Taylor Swift – After Glow

Labrinth, Sia, & Diplo – LSD – No New Friends

Kygo – Firestone

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

Evanescence – My Immortal

Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball

Katy Perry – Unconditionally

Cover Reveal: King of Hearts by R.H. Tucker

King of Hearts
R.H. Tucker
(Kings of Karmichael, #1)
Publication date: December 5th 2019
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Derrik Tyler has it all. He’s a world-famous rock star with a legion of adoring fans and has obtained teen idol status. He even has a Hollywood starlet who wants nothing more than to be the only girl in his life. It’s a publicity stunt only his band knows about, but that’s not detracting her from trying to turn their fake relationship into a real one. Yep, he has it all. Except the girl who stole his heart before his life turned into a rock n’ roll rollercoaster.

Zoey Jacobs has been friends with Derrik and the Kings of Karmichael, since before they became the hottest band in the world. She even dated Derrik before he was known as the King of Hearts—the biggest teen heartthrob in the last decade. But that’s all in the past. She’s just a few short months away from graduating high school and moving on to college.

When spring break rolls around, Derrik invites Zoey along for the last leg of the band’s tour. What should be an amazing road trip turns into Derrik’s personal mission to win back his first love. But can two people from different worlds reignite a past relationship, or is a teen icon and a future college freshman too big of a gap to cross?

King of Hearts is the first book in the Kings of Karmichael series. The series is interconnected, but each book can be read as a standalone.

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Author Bio:

RH Tucker writes cute & edgy YA romance. He also lives in Southern California, consumes too much caffeine, eats too much pizza, and firmly believes Rocky Road is the best flavor of ice cream.

You can sign up for my newsletter for previews, excerpts, and short stories at:
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Spotlight: Ending Back Pain: 5 Powerful Steps to Diagnose, Understand, and Treat Your Ailing Back By Jack Stern, M.D., Ph.D.

A totally new paradigm for treating back pain
Virtually every American will suffer from back pain at some point. Dr. Jack Stern, a neurosurgeon and professor at N.Y. Medical College, brings relief to these millions of sufferers (including himself) who literally ache for help. Based on the latest scientific data, Dr. Stern developed a five-step approach with a multidisciplinary, holistic perspective that’s been missing from conventional back pain wisdom:

• Step One: Unlock your back's unique pain code, because everyone's back pain is different
• Step Two: Prepare to work with health care professionals, because in today's healthcare environment you need to advocate for yourself
• Step Three: Ensure proper diagnosis, because diagnosis is the key to proper treatment
• Step Four: Embrace various pathways to healing, because there may be more than one way to treat your pain
• Step Five: Live a life that supports a strong, healthy back, because you don't want your back pain to become a chronic problem
• Engagingly written and chock-full of enlightening case studies, Ending Back Pain finally shares the program that’s already helped more than 10,000 grateful patients.

Excerpt

Most feelings of discomfort in life have clear solutions. For a stuffy nose, decongestants do the trick. For a pounding headache, aspirin or Tylenol comes in handy. But what do you do about a relentlessly aching back? As most of us know, the answer is not nearly as clear-cut as we’d wish. And unlike infectious diseases that often have targeted remedies (think antibiotics for bacterial infections and vaccines for viruses), ailing backs are like misbehaving, obnoxious family members—we can’t easily get rid of them or “fix” them. They also have a tendency to stick around and bother us nonstop, lowering our quality of life considerably and indefinitely.

Perhaps nothing could be more frustrating than a sore or hurting back. It seems to throw off everything else in our body, and makes daily living downright miserable. With the lifetime prevalence approaching 100 percent, virtually all of us have been or will be affected by low back pain at some point. Luckily, most of us recover from a bout of back pain within a few weeks and don’t experience another episode. But for some of us, the back gives us chronic problems. As many as 40 percent of people have a recurrence of back pain within six months.

At any given time, an astounding 15 to 30 percent of adults are experiencing back pain, and up to 80 percent of sufferers eventually seek medical attention. Sedentary people between the ages of forty-five and sixty are affected most, although I should point out that for people younger than forty-five, lower back pain is the most common cause for limiting one’s activities. And here’s the most frustrating fact of all: A specific diagnosis is often elusive; in many cases it’s not possible to give a precise diagnosis, despite advanced imaging studies. In other words, we doctors cannot point to a specific place in your back’s anatomy and say something along the lines of, “That’s exactly where the problem is, and here’s how we’ll fix it.” This is why the field of back pain has shifted from one in which we look solely for biomechanical approaches to treatment to one where we have to consider patients’ attitudes and beliefs. We have to look at a dizzying array of factors, because back pain is best understood through multiple lenses, including biology, psychology, and even sociology.

The Challenge

So, why is back pain such a confounding problem? For one, it’s lumped into one giant category, even though it entails a constellation of potential culprits. You may have back pain stemming from a skiing accident, whereas your neighbor experiences back pain as the consequence of an osteoporotic fracture. Clearly, the two types of back pain are different, yet we call them “back pain” on both accounts, regardless. Back pain has an indeterminate range of possible causes, and therefore multiple solutions and treatment options. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this malady. That is why diagnosing back pain, particularly persistent or recurrent pain, is so challenging for physicians.

Some people are able to describe the exact moment or series of moments when they incurred the damage to their back—a car accident, a slip and fall, a difficult pregnancy, a heavy-lifting job at work, a sports-related injury, a marathon, and so on. But for many, the moment isn’t so obvious, or what they think is causing them the back pain is far from accurate.

The Two Types of Back Pain

If you are going to experience back pain, you’d prefer to have the acute and temporary kind rather than the chronic and enigmatic kind. The former is typically caused by a musculoskeletal issue that resolves itself in due time. This would be like pulling a muscle in your back during a climb up a steep hill on your bicycle or sustaining an injury when you fall from the stepladder in the garage. You feel pain for a few weeks and then it’s silenced, hence the term self-limiting back pain. It strikes, you give it some time, it heals, and it’s gone.

The second type of back pain, though, is often worse, because it’s not easily attributed to a single event or accident. Often, either sufferers don’t know what precipitated the attack, or they remember some small thing as the cause, such as bending from the waist to lift an object instead of squatting down (i.e., lifting with the legs) or stepping off a curb too abruptly. It can start out of nowhere and nag you endlessly. It can build slowly over time but lack a clear beginning. Your doctor scratches his head, trying to diagnose the source of the problem, and as a result your treatment options aren’t always aligned with the root cause of the problem well enough to solve it forever. It should come as no surprise, then, that those with no definitive diagnosis reflect the most troubling cases for patients and doctors.

What Are the Chances?

Chances are good that you’ll experience back pain at some point in your life. Your lifetime risk is arguably close to 100 percent. And unfortunately, recurrence rates are appreciable. The chance of it recurring within one year of a first episode is estimated to be between 20 and 44 percent; within ten years, 80 percent of sufferers report back pain again. Lifetime recurrence is estimated to be 85 percent. Hence, the goal should be to alleviate symptoms and prevent future episodes.

Excerpted from Ending Back Pain: 5 Powerful Steps to Diagnose, Understand, and Treat Your Ailing Back. Copyright © by Jack Stern, M.D., Ph.D. Published by Avery. All rights reserved.

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About the Author

Jack Stern, M.D., Ph.D., is the author of Ending Back Pain: 5 Powerful Steps to Diagnose, Understand, and Treat Your Ailing Back. He is a board-certified neurosurgeon specializing in spinal surgery, and cofounder of Spine Options, one of America’s first facilities committed to nonsurgical care of back and neck pain. Dr. Stern is on the clinical faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College and has published numerous peer- and non peer– reviewed medical articles. He lives and practices in White Plains, New York.

Spotlight: Lip Smacker by Alison G. Bailey

Logan Heath was the sweetest and most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He was popular, smart, and the star quarterback of Fort Johnson High. Every girl in school followed him around in hopes of getting his attention. I was no different, except that I admired Logan from afar. With him being a superstar junior and me being an awkward freshman at a new school our coupling was a mere pipedream.

Implementing my topnotch investigating skills I learned from reading The Nancy Drew Mysteries, I followed Logan’s life from high school through his college career, and then some. Fearing that my stalker-ish tendencies were becoming more of a mental health issue, I purposely lost track of him five years ago. I admit since that time I have thought of Logan. And when I say thought I mean he has popped into one or forty R-rated dreams of mine.

The day he walked into my bakery, butterflies fluttered in my stomach, tingles tingled my skin, and a sequence of R-rated dreams flashed through my head. But I was no longer that awkward teenager, too scared to speak to him. I had grown into a confident woman. A woman who wanted to admire Logan Heath up close and personal. Unfortunately, from the very beginning Logan wanted something from me that I was not willing to give him.

Excerpt

My hands landed on my hips. “You can’t set up a mobile office in my bakery.”

                  “I have to work, Miss Smacker, and I am a paying customer.”

                  He took a long sip of coffee. 

                  “This is your negotiating tactic? Wait out your target until she gets so annoyed she’ll sign anything to get rid of you?”

                   “Not to boast, but I’ve never had a woman want to get rid of me. In fact, just the opposite.”

                  Logan looked wistfully into the air. My guess, sexy memories of the long list of women he’s had encounters with. No doubt they were skinny, had big boobs, big hair, and legs for days, with cute Ivy League sorority names like Buffy, Felicity, and Poppy. 

                  “You can’t stay here the entire day,” I snapped.

                  “Does that mean you’re ready to discuss Harper’s offer?”

                  “It means get out. You lurking here in the corner will unnerve my customers.”

                  “Your customers or you?”

                  “My customers. You’re already on my nerves.”

                  “Then let’s talk business.”

                  “I’m busy!”

                  He opened his laptop. “Do you have free WiFi?”

                  “WiFi my ass.” I stomped toward the kitchen.

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About the Author

Alison G. Bailey is an award winning, Amazon, and International bestselling author living in Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of ten she discovered her inner author, rewriting scenes from her favorite TV shows and movies. Alison wrote and produced several stage plays before turning her sights on the book world. Under the influence of large amounts of Diet Pepsi and her Spotify playlists, Alison writes thought provoking, emotional stories, full of love, and romance.

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Spotlight: Tasting Her Christmas Cookies by Alina Jacobs

Tasting Her Christmas Cookies
Alina Jacobs
Publication date: November 19th 2019
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance

Winter is coming—and unfortunately it’s bringing Christmas with it.

I loathe the holiday. I hate holiday parties, fragrant decorations, and hokey movies. If I had my way it would be winter all year round and never Christmas.

Nothing burns like the cold—except a hot oven.

That’s right; against my better judgment I agreed to let The Great Christmas Bake-Off film in my tower.

And St. Nick help me but I even agreed to be a judge.

Holly

Christmas is like the perfect sugar cookie—it slowly melts in your mouth, sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.

I love Christmas. I love the cheerful music, the fun sweaters, and the holiday lights. Most of all I love Christmas Cookies.

A begrudging bake-off judge, I refuse to let grouchy billionaire Owen Frost hate Christmas. The man is overworked, his employees are uninspired, and his life is seriously lacking in Yuletide cheer. I want to stuff his stocking with sugary goodness to put him in a very festive mood.

So I dressed up as a sexy elf and gave Owen a taste of something extra special. You should have seen his eyes roll back in his head when he bit into the perfect sugar cookie!

I can’t let Owen Frost be a distraction. Things are insane enough without a sexy billionaire.

My baking subscription service is in the death throes.

My Christmas-ruining step sister is trying to sabotage me in the bake-off.

I’m being stalked by elves on the shelf come to life.

Ok that last one is a little weird, but welcome to my disaster of a life.

I need to win The Great Christmas Bake-Off to pay of my debts and launch my baking career. Sleeping with one of the judges is going to ruin my chance for a merry Christmas. Owen with his washboard abs and big Christmas package is a bad idea. It’s best to keep that all wrapped under the tree.

But when he said in that deep, sexy voice, “Can I have another taste of your Christmas cookies?” Well, let’s just say I’m unwrapping one particular Christmas present early!

Tasting Her Christmas Cookies is a standalone holiday romantic comedy. If you love Christmas desserts, like to laugh out loud at holiday innuendoes, and want Santa to put a tall, good-looking guy under your tree, then pick up this full-length, steamy romance novel! There are no cliffhangers but there is a very happy (Christmas!) ever after!

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—

EXCERPT:

“We are having a Christmas bath scene in the near future,” I said to the camera, “with holiday bath bombs and themed cocktails. But unfortunately, it won’t be tonight. The bake-off starts tomorrow, baking fans!”

I looked longingly at the bathtub. Then, making sure the phone was definitely not recording, because I did not need to be that kind of Instagrammer, I took a quick shower. I seriously could not get over how huge the bathroom was. I could live in it. With a toaster and a mini fridge, I would totally be good.

After wrapping myself in the robe, I tied a T-shirt around my hair. I had frizzy hair on a good day; keeping my curls manageable was a perpetual struggle. I applied a gingerbread-cookie-scented moisturizer while my videos uploaded. Because I was busy scrolling through my phone and answering comments as I came out of the bathroom, I didn’t notice the half-naked man until he swore.

I looked up and screamed.

“Help! Help! Stalker!” I shrieked and ineffectively pointed at the stranger. Between the rippling muscles, the washboard abs, and an ass I could bounce a quarter on, I hoped he wasn’t actually here to hurt me, because he could do some damage. Pointing and shrieking wasn’t going to stop him. Fortunately, he looked more shocked and horrified than angry and violent.

“Stop screaming!” he bellowed. A freezing breeze blew into the room. It was as if the man had brought the rage of winter into the master suite with him. He looked like it, too, with his ice-blue eyes and silver-white hair. “This is my penthouse. You are not authorized to be here. That makes you the stalker!”

I stopped screaming. It clearly wasn’t helping anything. I also couldn’t help but notice that the bathroom wasn’t the only thing that was huge in the room. With him wearing nothing but boxer briefs, I could tell Santa had brought the handsome man a very large Christmas package indeed. The breeze blew in from the balcony, swirling the strange man’s clean and masculine scent around the room. I forced myself to ignore it.

“Get out of my house,” Big Christmas Package said flatly.

“You get out!” I shrieked. “I’m a bake-off contestant. This isn’t your room!”

“What the—” he grabbed his clothes, tugging on his pants. “The Great Christmas Bake-Off? I cannot have Christmas invading every element of my life. This is ridiculous. Christmas is ridiculous. It’s such a stupid, childish holiday.” He punctuated his words by snatching up articles of clothing.

“Hey now!” I said, hands on my hips, fear subsiding. “Christmas is never ridiculous. It’s the best holiday ever. And if you can’t see that, well then, you’re just a grinch, aren’t you?”

He advanced on me. I was suddenly very aware of how large he was. Christmas package notwithstanding, this dude was tall, broad shouldered, with rippling muscles. He could probably split me in two.

Yes, please.

“You’re some stupid little baker who never outgrew the childish fantasy of Christmas,” he sneered.

My nose was inches away from his chest. He glowered down at me. I was too angry to be aware of his half-naked body. Okay, maybe I was like fifteen percent aware. But the majority of my energy was focused on being offended on behalf of Christmas.

“Don’t insult baking,” I said, giving him my best “I want to speak to the manager vibe,” though it was ruined by the fact that I had to crane my neck up to see him and that I was completely naked under the robe. “And never insult Christmas!”

His nostrils flared slightly.

“Men like you constantly belittle the work that women do to keep cultural traditions like Christmas alive,” I continued, poking him in the chest.

“We decorate homes to make them cozy.”

Poke.

“We cook holiday dinners and bake festive desserts.”

Poke.

“We host parties that bring families and friends together.”

Before I could poke him again, he grabbed my hand in his much-larger one. Then, realizing what he’d done, he quickly released it.

“I will not stand for your bad attitude!” I declared.

He glared down at me, strong jaw clenched, eyes cold as a frozen lake. “I can’t even believe this,” he finally snarled. He grabbed his briefcase and stormed out, still shirtless.

“Oh my God!” Fiona exclaimed, wide-eyed, as she ran into the room. She hugged me then pushed me to sit on the bed. “Are you okay? Who was that? Why was he in here? Someone call the police!”

“I knew it! You’re trying to steal my boyfriend,” Amber yelled at me, rushing into the room. “That’s Owen Frost, and he’s mine!”

Author Bio:

If you like steamy romantic comedies with a creative streak, then I'm your girl!

Architect by day, writer by night, I love matcha green tea, chocolate, and books! So many books...

Sign up for my mailing list to get the free novella, AFTER HIS PEONIES, along with special bonus content, giveaways, and more!
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