Spotlight: Cold by Tania Cooper

About Cold: 

I’ve forever felt like people were staring at me, judging me for the way I looked, the bullying I endured in high school only fueled these thoughts.

Despite working hard at becoming a successful journalist, I was still insecure with my larger figure, it shadowed a lot of my success, especially since I worked in the land of beautiful people; LA.

But after the number one quarter back in the USA, Kellan Hart, surprisingly pursued me, then declared he loved me for who I was, my body issues just started to … fall away.

But they couldn’t be locked away for long. Plunged into the public eye, chased and hunted by the media, tagged as the most talked about couple in the sporting world, meant that everyone had an opinion about the hot athlete dating a plus sized girl.

As much as I tried to avoid it all, it was constantly thrown in my face, insecurities rose their ugly heads again and I was forced to make some difficult decisions.

Decisions that would have dire consequences on my life and the people I loved.

Exclusive Excerpt: 

I dive one hand straight into the hair at the back of her neck and pull her forward, smashing my lips to hers. Her surprised gasp only fuels me on further. I want her to know, no, I need her to know how much she means to me right at this exact moment. I don’t know why, but I feel an urgency to smash some of the walls she has up around her heart, despite my vow to wait for her to open up to me.

My other hand finds her waist, slowly sliding around to her back, grasping her sexy red shirt, pulling her closer to me. My tongue searching for hers as she opens her lips willingly, her hands gripping my shirt at my waist becoming just as eager. I kiss her deeper, a moan escaping her mouth making me ache for much more than just a kiss. We are yet to take it further than that, me wanting her to take the next step when she’s ready, but if our kisses keep heating up more each time our lips lock, I’m going to have to become accustomed to cold showers every time we part.

Against my bodies want, I slow the kiss down, pulling back slightly, nibbling at the side of her mouth as the sound of her rapid breathing almost breaks my restraint. I go to sit back, but her tight grip on my shirt won’t allow me. I place a finger under her chin and lift her gaze from my chest to my eyes. And damn. The heat and want swirling through her eyes has her looking more like sexy as sin, than sweet as sunshine. I can’t move an inch, I can barely take a breath as I let her control what happens next.

Her tongue darts out to moisten her lips and I just about pop the button of my slacks as my control in the groin area, completely gives out. Her hooded eyes look down to my lips, to my eyes then back to my lips. She leans in ever so slowly. I’m not exactly sure what she’s about to do, but the way her chest is rising rapidly, she seems to have no intention of calming the situation down anytime soon.

She lays her lips on the corner of my mouth then pulls back slightly. Her eyes raise to mine under the shadow of her long lashes and with our gaze still locked, she leans in and glides her tongue across the seam of my lips. Holy fuck. Has my girl suddenly came out of her shell? My mind and my body wants me to grab her and throw her down on the back seat and worship every inch of her entire body, but I know this is a big deal for her to be so brazen, so I continue to hold back and let her take her time.

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About the Author: 

Tania Cooper, who lives in Melbourne Australia, was searching for an outlet for her wild and crazy imagination for a lifetime. Her book reading addiction lead her to finally put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard, to create her own stories she can now share with other avid readers. From the moment she first sat down and started writing, she hasn’t been able to stop. Her writing passion is steamy Romance and Paranormal novels, a little bit of poetry and even a few horror stories that give her nightmares. Sexy men with tattoos and book boyfriends are her addictions and she also has aspirations of being a screenwriter and film director.

Connect with Tania Cooper: Facebook |  Facebook | Amazon | Twitter | Instagram | Website | Goodreads

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Spotlight: Royal Beauty Bright by Ryan Byrnes

After an autistic man ends up in the trenches of World War I, a nun-turned-journalist dances with treason to care for him, and a candy store clerk posing as Santa Claus risks everything to bring him home.

While in France, Luther meets Ethyl, an aspiring journalist who tries to expose his plight. As Christmas approaches, Luther sinks into despair and Ethyl is threatened with punishment.

Back home, Luther’s brother Jim enlists with the British Army Postal Service. His job, delivering sacks of Christmas gifts to the frontline soldiers, is a cover for his plan to rescue Luther. The plan is made even more difficult by three refugee girls convinced that Jim, with his bag of gifts, is Santa Claus.

Jim and Ethyl finally cross paths with Luther on Christmas Day, 1914, when they witness one of the most uplifting spectacles of nonviolence in history, when thousands of soldiers broke orders and refused to fire on each other during the Christmas Truce of 1914.

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | INDIEBOUND

About the Author

Ryan Byrnes is a St. Louis native. His first foray into writing was founding the publishing imprint, Avency Press, where he wrote one illustrated chapter book, The Adventures of Wheatail, and four young adult fantasy novels in the Son of Time series. Since then, he has worked with a publishing company, a literary agency, and various aspiring writers seeking to self-publish. Ryan now lives in Iowa as a student in mechanical engineering and English. Between work hours, he builds Mars Rovers with his roommates, plays with cats, and watches Wes Anderson movies.

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Royal Beauty Bright

Playlist: The Cursed Key by Miranda Brock & Rebecca Hamilton

Have fun with this Playlist for The Cursed Key!

1. Rather Be by Clean Bandit

2. On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons 

3. Things We Lost in the Fire by Bastille

4. Antidote by Faith Marie

5. Renegades by X Ambassadors 

6. Change (In The House of Flies) by The Deftones 

7. Carry You by Ruelle ft. Fleurie

8. Roots by Alice Merton

9. Soul Sacrifice by Santana

10. Wolves by Selena Gomez 

11. Monster by Meg Myers 

12. Bad Blood by Taylor Swift 

13. Way Down We Go by Kaleo

Book Information:

A forgotten past, a dark mage, and an unyielding curse.

Another team beat free-spirited archaeologist Olivia Perez to the dig of a lifetime, and now she’s left with the choice to wait for scraps or brave a dangerous, dusty tomb in hopes of finding other priceless artifacts. Her reward? A mysterious key she has no idea is cursed. Soon, Olivia realizes she’s brought home more than just an ancient rarity.

Malevolent visions begin to plague her. Unnerved by what they reveal, she casts away the key…unknowingly placing it into the waiting hands of a dark mage bent on destruction. Only when a shifter agent from the Paranormal Intelligence and Tracking Organization arrives searching for the key does Olivia realize what a huge mistake she’s made. 

Forced to team up with the ill-tempered shifter, her journey to reclaim the cursed key leads down a twisting path of dark histories, dangerous magic, and deadly obstacles. But Olivia’s efforts to take back the ancient relic before the dark mage can destroy the lives of humans, shifters, witches, and fae alike are thwarted by her own dark past…and a price steeper than what she’s willing to pay.

Fans of Tomb Raider and Ilona Andrews will love the blend of urban fantasy, magical adventure, and paranormal romance in THE CURSED KEY from Miranda Brock and New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Hamilton!

Grab your copy on Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Spotlight: The Bishop by Skye Warren

A million dollar chess piece goes missing hours before the auction.

Anders Sorenson will do anything to get it back. His family name and fortune rests on finding two inches of medieval ivory. Instead he finds an injured woman with terrible secrets.

He isn't letting her go until she helps him find the piece. But there's more at stake in this strategic game of lust and danger. When she confesses everything, he might lose more than his future. He might lose his heart.

**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it's an introduction to an author's world. And for fans, it's a bonus book in the author's series. We hope you'll enjoy each one as much as we do.**

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About the Author

Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.

Website: http://www.skyewarren.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skyewarren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skye_warren

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skyewarrenbooks/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5339130.Skye_Warren

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2Nmv2Sg

Spotlight: Inherent Truth by Alicia Anthony

Inherent Truth
Alicia Anthony
(Blood Secrets, #1)
Publication date: January 14th 2020
Genres: Adult, Suspense

A woman with buried secrets…
An agent with an impossible mission…
An inheritance that will destroy them both…

When Liv Sullivan’s grandmother beckons for help from beyond the grave, the reluctant psychic returns to her small Ohio hometown. Scrambling to make sense of the clues left by the vision, Liv finds herself face to face with undercover agent, Ridge McCaffrey.

Assigned to protect a woman whose gifts unnerve him, for a covert psychic intelligence operation he doesn’t understand, Ridge struggles to place duty over desire. But when a gruesome discovery is unearthed at Sullivan Farm, the truth becomes clear…

Some family secrets are best left buried.

Inherent Truth is the first book in the gripping new Blood Secrets psychological thriller series about the cost of truth and the price we pay for love. If you like pulse-pounding page-turners laced with a touch of romance, and shocking twists that will leave you dying for the sequel, Alicia Anthony’s thrilling debut is for you.

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EXCERPT:

I was ten when I watched my cousin die. Granted, at the time I didn’t know the kid I’d seen through a light blue haze was a member of my family. To me, he was just a stranger, like all the rest. A specter sent from the depths of my brain to wake me up in the middle of the night. I still remember like it was yesterday.

The dream sent our household into a sleep deprived frenzy. Me, screaming for my parents to turn on the lights, tears running in rivers down flushed cheeks. My dad, sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbed his hand in circles across my shoulders, consoling me. It took a long distance phone call the following morning for my mom and dad to understand that the dream had been more than a figment of my overactive imagination.

“How did it happen?” My mother’s voice was tight, wobbly as she spoke into the kitchen telephone receiver. It was the only one in the house that was still corded. I watched from the living room couch as she twisted the stretched curlicues of cord around her index finger.

When she slid into a chair at the kitchen table with her hand planted firmly over her lips, heaviness descended on the room, blanketing the air with cold finality. To this day I remember the lead weight in my chest, the struggle for breath. Maybe that’s what he’d felt in his last moments. My mother was still holding the phone in one hand when she turned to stare at me. Eyes wide with some emotion I couldn’t yet interpret. Now, sixteen years later, I can tell you for certain it was terror.

My sixteen-year-old cousin, Curt, had been killed racing home from a party to make curfew. I’d seen it all. Told my parents every detail. The skid on the damp roadway. The slam into a poorly placed telephone pole. Even the good Samaritans who’d stopped in the dead of night to try to dig him out of the twisted wreckage. Smoke filtered up from the heap of metal before I saw him, standing on the other side of the car, smiling at me.

“Tell Mom, I’m sorry,” he’d said. His voice cut short by the wail of a siren.

It’s funny. I can still picture that dream in lifelike detail. But now, instead of terror, there’s a peaceful comfort attached to the memory. I think that’s how it works for me. The visions can’t hold any power over me once I work them out–figure out how to help.

In those early days, I’d been scared senseless. I’d wake up in a cold sweat, flailing to turn a light on, to familiarize myself with reality again. For a while I slept with the bedside lamp on, hoping the luminescence would create some kind of barrier between this world and the next. It was my grandmother who helped me realize it was useless, of course. The dreams were a part of reality–my reality, anyway.

But that awareness of what my dreams were–what that made me–changed everything. The energy in our household sparked with frustration. My mother and father argued. Family outings trickled to a rare occurrence. My life consisted of school, home, homework, and bed, praying to whatever god would listen to let me sleep through the night. Every once in a while some deity would listen, most times, not. I learned to keep what I saw to myself. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Within two years, my mother had run through all the psychiatrists and magic pills she could find to make me normal again. By the time I was twelve, I was spending the majority of my time at my grandparents’ farm, away from the family I’d disgraced and the marriage I’d destroyed. At least, that’s how it seemed to twelve-year-old me.

“I will not allow my daughter to be a freak.” My mother’s words after a particularly heated exchange with my father regarding my condition are what drove me to become the Liv Sullivan I am today.

The “f” word, as I’d taken to calling it, hummed in my skull now, just as it had when I was a girl. Hunkered down on the steps of my parents’ home, eavesdropping through tears, the people I loved arguing about an affliction I didn’t fully understand and over which I had no control.

Of course, if it wasn’t for all of that, I might never have learned I had two choices in life–remain the small-town freak or reinvent myself as a big city fraud. I chose the latter, finding out pretty quick that the best place to hide was in plain sight.

Author Bio:

Alicia Anthony’s first novels were illegible scribbles on the back of her truck driver father’s logbook trip tickets. Having graduated from scribbles to laptop, she now pens novels of psychological suspense in the quiet of the wee morning hours. A full-time elementary school Literacy Specialist, Alicia hopes to pass on her passion for books and writing to the students she teaches.

A two time Golden Heart® finalist and Silver Quill Award winner, Alicia finds her inspiration in exploring the dark, dusty corners of the human experience. Alicia is a graduate of Spalding University’s School of Creative & Professional Writing (MFA), Ashland University (M.Ed.) and THE Ohio State University (BA). Go Bucks! She lives in rural south-central Ohio with her amazingly patient and supportive husband, incredibly understanding teenage daughter, two dogs, three horses, a plethora of both visiting and resident barn cats, and some feral raccoons who have worn out their welcome.

When she’s not writing or teaching, Alicia loves to travel and experience new places. Connect with her on Facebook or Instagram @AliciaAnthonyBooks. She’d love to hear from you!

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Spotlight: Hung Up on You by Marie Landry

Hung Up on You
Marie Landry
Publication date: January 14th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Julia is single and happy, thank you very much. Try telling that to her happily-coupled bestie, though. She’s so determined to pair Julia off, she brings an extra guy friend along on a weekend getaway, in what’s clearly a set-up attempt. Julia’s interest is immediately piqued by sweet, sexy, nerdy Zack. There’s just one problem: he’s still hung up on his ex. Big time.

Despite knowing that – and despite her attraction to him – it doesn’t stop her friends from throwing them together every other second, insisting they’d make the perfect couple. But Julia is determined to friend zone him. At least until he suggests they pretend to date to get their respective friends off their backs.

At first, their fake “dating” is more friendship than fireworks. But as they get closer, the lines begin to blur between them, and Julia realizes she has to either shut down her developing feelings for Zack or let him in. The question is: can she fully trust him with her heart? Or does his heart still belong to his ex?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

Todd frees himself from the jumble in the hall and comes forward to kiss Dee’s cheek, then mine. Kai follows suit, giving Dee a peck on the lips before stopping in front of me. He grips my shoulders lightly, the way he always does when we see each other, and bends to kiss both my cheeks. “I’m happy to see you, Jules,” he says in his deep, measured voice. “I’m glad you could come for the weekend.” He leans forward and whispers, “Don’t be too mad at her. You know her heart is always in the right place, even if she tends to overstep.”

I don’t get a chance to ask what he’s talking about before he steps to the side, giving me my first look at the mystery stranger in the hall. His glasses have fogged up after coming in from the cold, but as the mist clears, I get a better look at his dark-blue eyes. The uncertainty on his face likely matches my own as he looks between the two couples. His eyes land on me next, and the crease in his forehead eases slightly, his frown morphing into a tiny, shy smile. He takes off his hat, revealing thick brown hair that stands in every direction, even after he attempts to smooth it down.

My stomach does a little flip. I get it now: this is a setup. I should probably be irritated, and that’s clearly what Dee expects, but this guy is cute. Really cute. He has a bit of a nerdy vibe, which isn’t my usual type, but there’s something about his shy, almost boyish smile that piques my curiosity. I usually resist Dee’s attempts to fix me up, but maybe I’ll cut her some slack this time. I’m single, I’m young, and there’s nothing wrong with a weekend hookup every now and then, right?

Dee steps forward and gives the guy a quick hug. “I’m so glad you decided to take Kai up on his offer to come. We’re going to have so much fun!” I’m vaguely aware of butterflies taking flight in my stomach as Dee turns to me. “This is Julia Coleman, my best friend. Jules, this is Zack Clayton. He and Kai work at the same insurance company.”

Zack steps forward, pulling off his right glove to shake my hand. Warm skin, good grip. His smile gives me a girl-in-a-romance-novel reaction: weak knees, heart fluttering, skin buzzing with awareness. Up close, I can see the crinkles around his eyes and the shallow dimple in his right cheek. I’ve always been a sucker for a cute smile.

“Nice to meet you, Julia.”

Oh god, and his deep, sexy voice. It’s the perfect complement to those beautiful eyes and adorable smile. I’m a goner.

Author Bio:

Marie Landry's life revolves around books; when she's not writing them, she's reading them, taking pictures of them for bookstagram, or blogging about them. An avid reader from a young age, she loves getting lost in characters' worlds, whether they're of her own making or someone else's. She particularly loves coming-of-age stories with as much of an emphasis on self-discovery as on romance...but don't leave out the romance!

When not doing bookish things, Marie can be found daydreaming (in general, but often about traveling through Europe), marathon-watching shows on Netflix, and taking photographs. She lives in a cozy apartment in Ontario, Canada with the best roommate ever, and only sometimes imagines it's actually a flat in London.

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