Spotlight: Hollywood Heartbreaker by Alexa Aston

Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy

Release Date: August 6, 2020

From internationally bestselling romance author Alexa Aston comes a stunning new Contemporary Romance series. Book One in the exciting Hollywood Name Game series has arrived. Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

Being late to an interview lands her the biggest job opportunity of her life.

He may be rich and successful—but he’s just this side of miserable.

Can a wannabe be The One for the biggest star in Hollywood?

Cassie Carroll came to Hollywood with big dreams that never materialized. Acting isn’t even on the back burner anymore—it’s completely off the stove. Working for a third-rate agent, Cassie hopes to land a new job that will give her credibility, as well as help pay the rent. Late to her interview, she swerves to avoid hitting a dog—and totals the car of Hollywood’s leading action superstar. Surprisingly, she walks away from their encounter with a job—as the sexiest man alive’s personal assistant.

Rhett Corrigan is bored with the movies he makes and the drop-dead gorgeous model he’s dating. He’s afraid that Hollywood has typecast him—and that he’ll never be able to break out of his action mold and try new acting challenges. When Cassie Carroll literally slams into his life, she brings a breath of fresh air and common sense to his world. She pushes him to be a better actor and a better man.

Can these friends become lovers—and can their love survive—in a tabloid-happy town that thrives on rumors and backstabbing?

Hollywood Heartbreaker is the first book in the Hollywood Name Game series. Each book in the series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.

#HollywoodNameGame #AlexaAston #romance #bookbuzz

Excerpt

Excerpt from Hollywood Heartbreaker by Alexa Aston

Cassie squeezed her eyes closed as she plowed into the vehicle. An awful crunching noise sounded, metal grinding against metal. No airbag exploded because the car didn’t have one. She bounced off the steering wheel as her heart slammed against her ribs. The guy that had stepped out couldn’t have survived the impact. What did they call it—vehicular manslaughter? She would go to prison for the rest of her life. This would be the final nail to hammer into the Cassie Coffin. She’d taken a life and would give up her own in payment. Forcing her eyes open, her jaw dropped in amazement.

The guy was alive.

Granted, he was draped across the trunk of some foreign-looking convertible but she hadn’t crushed the life out of him. Somehow, he’d managed to spin around, quick reflexes saving his life. He came upright and limped a few steps. Great. She must have nicked him. He leaned against the car—what was left of it—and held a hand to his forehead as he turned to stare at her.

Her adrenaline spiked. She’d totaled his very expensive car. Cassie had the feeling the stranger was about to tear her apart. She would meet him in the middle and grovel. Maybe turn on some tears for good measure. Hadn’t Jolene told her that men hated themselves when they made women cry?

Cassie unhooked her seat belt and tried to get out of the car. The door wouldn’t budge. Great. She’d have to go back to climbing in through the passenger’s side as she had last month when the Civic went through a temperamental stage. Or maybe not. She glanced around and saw the crumpled hood, steam rising, and watched as the sedan shuddered, giving up the ghost.

The smell of gasoline began to permeate the air, clouding her judgment. She looked down at her outfit and knew today’s interview wasn’t happening with the way she looked. She’d seen homeless people appear more pulled together. Confused, she wondered what she had wanted to do.

Cassie saw the stupid dog again that she’d swerved to miss. A yapping poodle. The mutt’s owner teetered over on stilettos taller than the Eiffel Tower and scooped the dog up, hugging him to her tightly as she glared at Cassie. Cassie estimated the dog’s outfit cost more than her last month’s rent. The woman didn’t bother to ask if she needed help. Hollywood. It was a different world from Texas.

She reached for her purse and slung it over her shoulder. Nothing else of value to save. Cassie prayed the passenger door would open. If it didn’t, she could always climb into the back seat and get out that way.

Suddenly, he was hollering. The guy she’d sort of hit. It must’ve been his car she’d smashed. If she hadn’t been sure before, she was now. Men and their cars—no one came between them.

Cassie giggled at her flash of wisdom. That was one car that wouldn’t be cruising around Beverly Hills anytime soon. Jeez, what would this do to her insurance? She already had two speeding tickets in the last eighteen months. Her insurance agent would drop her now. She’d be at the mercy of those goons that only advertised on late night TV. They charged an arm and a leg to cover high-risk drivers. She was now a charter member of that club.

She looked up as the guy inched closer, hobbling along, yelling, his arms waving. Breathing the fumes had her disoriented. She couldn’t understand what he was saying. She started to apologize but then remembered her mom told her never to apologize after a wreck because that could be construed as admitting guilt. She was at fault. Big time.

The guy made it to her and tried to yank the door open. It wouldn’t move. Before Cassie could speak, he reached through her open window and hauled her out.

“Hey, wait a minute. What are you doing?”

He mumbled something but all Cassie could do was stare at him. He had the most amazing gray eyes, dark and stormy and full of anger.

At her.

Recognition seared through her. “Oh, God. You’re Rhett Corrigan.”

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About the Author

Award-winning and internationally bestselling author Alexa Aston lives with her husband in a Dallas suburb, where she eats her fair share of dark chocolate and plots out stories while she walks every morning. She’s a binge fiend (The Crown and Ozark are favorites) who enjoys travel, sports, and time with her family.

Her historical romances bring to life loveable rogues and dashing knights, while her contemporary romances are light and flirty and sometimes contain a bit of suspense.

Connect:

Website: https://alexaaston.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlexaAston

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoralexaaston/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/alexa-aston

Promo Link: http://bookbuzz.net/blog/contemporary-romance-hollywood-heartbreaker/

Spotlight: Gaijin by Sarah Z Sleeper

Lucy, a budding journalist at Northwestern University, is obsessed with an exotic new student, Owen Ota, who becomes her lover and her sensei. When he disappears without explanation, she’s devastated and sets out to find him.

On her three-month quest across Japan, she finds only snippets of the elegant culture Owen had described. Instead she becomes a gaijin (the Japanese word meaning “unwelcome foreigner”). Lucy faces anti-U.S. protests, menacing street thugs and sexist treatment, and winds up at the base of Mt. Fuji, in the terrifying Suicide Forest. Will she ever find Owen, or will she be driven back to the U.S. alone? A coming-of-age story about a woman who solves a heartbreaking mystery that alters the trajectory of her life, Gaijin is loosely based on Sleeper's four years in Japan. She noted: "My protagonist, Lucy, faces an array of obstacles and troubles, and I can say that I did too while I was there. But Lucy is not me, she’s a fictional character. She’s an amalgam of emotions, instances and imagination, not to mention research.”

Excerpt

Excerpted from Gaijin. Copyright © 2020 by Sarah Z. Sleeper. All rights reserved. Published by Running Wild Press.

Mono No Aware

Awareness of Impermanence 

Love, tea and flowers. 

Impermanent, transcendent. 

Are you aware of beauty that flames up and out 

before it can root itself in the earth of truth?

Memory is truth, like brown dirt

smeared on a cherry-blossom pink canvas

—Inspired by antique Japanese porcelain gilded with makie

A person or a memory can sit inside you and you might have no choice about it. You don’t have to think about a person for him to be part of you. That’s what my best friend Rose told me years ago, in a moment when she saw me more clearly than I saw myself, a moment when I was restless and heartsick and about to board a plane to Japan.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “You’re going to hunt down Owen.”

I scoffed and lied, said I never thought of him.

Now years later, I know Rose was right, that you don’t get to decide what sticks and what doesn’t, who gets in and who gets blocked. You like to think you control your destiny and choose your path, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes you’re propelled forward in the most unexpected way when something or someone takes hold of you and doesn’t let go.

That’s how it happened to me. My college love, Owen Ota, burrowed his way into me one tantalizing moment at a time, over the course of a sweltering Indian summer at Northwestern University. He etched himself into the side of my neck and he took root in the pit of my stomach. He changed the trajectory of my life, set me in motion, and then he disappeared, like a puff of smoke or a phantom I’d hallucinated. He gave no feasible explanation, stopped all communication, and fled back to Tokyo in the same startling way he’d arrived. He was gone but I couldn’t let go. I needed to find Owen, and to experience the Japan he described. I clung to the notion that my dreams of the person and the place would match the reality.

Nothing, not Rose, not the application of common sense, could have dissuaded me from leaving Chicago on that overheated afternoon at O’Hare, when car horns, screeching voices and jet engines drowned out our goodbyes. A jumble of images jostled around in my brain, crowding out logical thoughts. Delicate pink cherry blossoms on porcelain teacups, a thin ivory book of haiku, a red silk blouse on polished glass skin, steaming spicy cuttlefish served on a black lacquer tray; a dazzling collage of the things Owen had shown me.

I was naïve and grief hollowed out my heart; I was determined to solve the mystery of his disappearance, as if finding him could erase the pain I’d felt when he abandoned me. I didn’t put it together then, the folly of searching for someone who didn’t want to be found, moving to a country I didn’t understand. And so, I went, flying into the unknown with a single suitcase of clothes, clutching my computer and cell phone as if they were life preservers.

On the plane I read the latest news from Japan. There were stories about the failed economic policies of the prime minister, the scandal of the royal princess who wanted to marry a commoner, the looming threat of North Korean missiles. Of course, I’d studied Japan in college, but looking back on that day, I knew nothing of the true character of the country.

The flight took an eternity and I immersed myself in a book of Japanese art filled with photos of ancient pottery and porcelain, chipped and faded, but glowing and glorious at the same time. I was striving to be a poet back then, a person who dealt in beauty and art, not only a journalist who worked with black ink and cold data. The art book held a luminous photo of a powder blue teacup swirled with feathery gold patterns, captioned, “Makie.” I Googled and learned that it meant “sprinkled picture.” Makie was an art object sprinkled with gold or silver powder, so that it gleamed with warmth. Inspired, I wrote a little poem on the plane, which I still have today. I titled it “Mono No Aware,” Awareness of Impermanence, a Japanese term I would come to understand deeply over time.

On my way to my new life in Japan, memories of my moments with Owen colored my mind with a makie haze. The landing of the plane brought the crash of reality. I was confronted by a gritty, dangerous nation, so unlike the exotic islands he’d described to me. A place where coworkers gave me gifts wrapped in gold foil while darting disdainful glances at me. I found few of the glamorous, mannered people I’d expected, and instead found an angry schizophrenic culture, alluring and hostile by turns, that kept me constantly at bay and confounded. And as I ventured further, in my quest to discover Owen’s fate, I realized I might not be able to find him before Japan chased me out, like the gaijin I was, a foreigner, unwelcomed by my adopted country.

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About the Author

Sarah Z. Sleeper is an ex-journalist with an MFA in creative writing. Gaijin is her first novel. Her short story, “A Few Innocuous Lines,” won an award from Writer’s Digest. Her non-fiction essay, “On Getting Vivian,” was published in The Shanghai Literary Review. Her poetry was published in A Year in Ink, San Diego Poetry Annual and Painters & Poets, and exhibited at the Bellarmine Museum. In the recent past she was an editor at New Rivers Press, and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Mason’s Road. She completed her MFA at Fairfield University in 2012. Prior to that she had a twenty-five-year career as a business writer and technology reporter and won three journalism awards and a fellowship at the National Press Foundation. For more information, please visit https://sarahzsleeper.com and follow Sarah on Twitter.

Spotlight: That One Summer by Maddie James

Part of the Summer’s End Box Set - 14 Author Box Set

Contemporary Romance

Date Published: August 4, 2020

He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who couldn’t commit.

***

Twenty years ago, Lia Langston left Last Chance Beach, leaving behind friends, a really good job offer, and the young man she’d fallen in love with that summer. The breakup hurt them both—but she was expected back home in Chicago where a job was waiting. From there, she meandered through life—marriage, a child, divorce, career—yet, there was one constant. She never missed the annual week at Last Chance Beach with her college girlfriends.

Same week, same beach house, same beach town. The routine was safe and predictable. By the time beach week rolled around every year, she was more than ready.

Except for this year.

When Zach Allen—the young man she left behind—steps back into her life, she must face the twenty-year-old consequences of her leaving. Will Last Chance Beach allow her a second chance at love?

LAST CHANCE BEACH is the island paradise where Dreams go to live again, and Wishes may come true. It's Summer's End on the island, and the cottages, condos, hotels, and bungalows are filled to capacity.

There's plenty of time left to find summer fun and summer love, new romances and second chances, hot alpha males and heartwarming heroes, love at first sight and romantic delight, enemies to lovers and opposites attract.

Throw a log on the beach bonfire tonight and celebrate LAST CHANCE BEACH: Summer's End, a special romance collection of 14 all-new short stories from bestselling and award-winning authors. These summer stories—created especially for this collection—will thrill the hopeful romantic in you. Some are sweet: some are sizzling! Some are humorous; some are serious. All the stories will make you sigh!

LAST CHANCE BEACH: Summer's End will make you want to book a vacation to the island of legend and love, the place where soul mates find each other and love at first sight happens all the time!

Joan Reeves, NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
When they met, it was hate at first sight. Now they're stuck in the same overbooked beach cottage and horrified to discover they have the hots for each other!

Liz Flaherty, USA Today Bestselling Author
Their lives are planned out...until they're not! Are they in love or just stuck in a habit?

Nancy Fraser, Top 100 Bestselling Author
At a high school reunion; old flames meet again. Can they re-ignite what they once had and take a last chance on love?

Caroline Clemmons, Top 100 Bestselling Author
She faces a hard decision; he encourages her to choose with her heart. Will the solution drive them apart or into one another's arms?

Maddie James, Top 100 Bestselling Author
It's the typical annual week on the beach with the girls—until her summer fling from twenty years back shows up. He's the one who got away. She's the one who couldn't commit.

Jan Scarbrough, National Bestselling Author
The kids are grown; her husband has an important career, and she wonders if she still loves him, and if he loves her. Can she turn back the clock to save her marriage?

Kathleen Lawless, National Bestselling Author
Of all the beaches on the coast, who shows up on her beach? Him! A former competitive surfer runs into her former love, and revisits all the reasons things didn't work out for them before.

Bonnie Edwards, National Bestselling Author
She wants divorce—he doesn't. What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas!

Marcia King-Gamble, National Bestselling Author
She's hiding from the paparazzi after a scandal. He's the guy next door, an amateur photographer. Will he accept tabloid money for pictures of her? Or will he choose love over jumpstarting his career?

Kathryn Hills, Award Winning Author
Kat must convince her Gran to move to the mainland, but Gran—and hunky neighbor Ben—want Kat to takeover the B&B and antique shop. What will it take for Kat to stay? Some of Gran’s special island magic?

Connie Vines, Award Winning Author
She returns to Last Chance Beach to begin a new life. He's a single dad on vacation with his pre-teen daughter. He's worried his daughter may become too attached to her, but maybe he's the one whose heart is at risk.

Laura Hunsaker, Award Winning Author
Can dreams of the future erase her nightmares of the past? She's looking for a fresh start, but he’s rented the same beach cottage. One bed, two people? Whatever will they do?

Nora LeDuc
He's handsome and in town for only 2 weeks. She wants someone interested in a fling. He wants someone interested in a ring.

Hannah Rowan
She won the big lottery, but doesn't want anyone to know. He's a fixer-upper specialist, but things aren't always what they seem.

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About the Author

Maddie James writes to silence the people in her head—if only they wouldn’t all talk at once!

Whether writing traditional contemporary romance or building paranormal worlds, Maddie pens stories that frequently cross a variety of romantic sub-genres.

Affaire de Coeur says, “James shows a special talent for traditional romance,” and RT Book Reviews claims, “James deftly combines romance and suspense, so hop on for an exhilarating ride.” The author of over fifty titles of fiction—from short stories to novels—Maddie is an award-winning and Top 100 National Bestselling Author. Learn more at http://www.maddiejames.net.

Spotlight: The Veiled Descendants (The Veiled Duchess #2) by Sophia Menesini

Captain Shea Lara and the crew are back in this thrilling sequel to The Veiled Threat, The Veiled Descendants. It's been a year since she struck the deal — a year since she promised to marry her princess, a year of adventure, darkness, and change. Her fiancé has chased Shea across the Nereidan seas, but now it's time for her to come back to Arethusa. The storm has arrived, and none of them are prepared for what’s coming. An elven Fae with a blood connection to Shea, who plans to take Nereid back from the humans, shatters the life of a young Oceanan prince, and now it's up to Beck of Oceanus, Captain Shea, and Queen Joana to save their world from the powerful threat.But they can't do it alone. With the help of Shea's father, Poseidon, God of the Sea, and her former lover: the goddess of love, she will set out on a quest to find the one being who can help prevent Perses from destroying everything she holds dear. A god, who just so happens to be Shea's immortal brother, Triton.Shea chose the family she has now, but the tides are changing, and what she wants may no longer matter. She'll need to rely on the magic in her blood for the battle ahead. Perses is coming, with the help of vicious creatures, an evil empress, and the Lycon army, and he plans to drag her down to depths with him.

Excerpt

Aster opens his mouth, shaking his head, but James continues. He points to a long white scar down the side of his thigh. “Rigging accident. Was climbing the ropes for the first time, I didn’t listen to Tero, and a pin came lose. Broke my leg too when I fell.” 

James turns, laughing softly when he hears Aster gasp, either from his ass or the massive scar on his lower back, he couldn’t say. He prefers to think it’s his ass. 

“I’m sure you’ve wondered where I got it. First year on the ship was found by some rival buccaneers in the eastern port of Lycos, Hypnus, I believe it was. For entertainment, they each took a turn carving a pattern into my lower back. Paetre found me before they could do much else, but one managed to carve his initials among the mess. I have another man’s name scarred into me; do you think I’m less for it?” 

James looks over his shoulder to Aster.

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About the Author

The Storyteller with Salt Water in Her Veins

Sophia Menesini lives in Martinez, CA with her husband, and their two small Chihuahuas, Ziggy and Zeppelin. The Veiled Threat is her first novel. Sophia is an avid tea connoisseur and lover of Scotland with an unconventional memory for obscure Disney and Broadway song lyrics.

Connect:

Website: https://www.sophiamenesini.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MenesiniSophia

Tumblr: https://theveiledduchessseries.tumblr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theveiledthreatnovel/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theveiledthreatnovel/?hl=en

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Spotlight: In Name Only by Sean D. Young

Some of the greatest romances start with a fairy tale.

Cassaundra Moore, event planner extraordinaire, stopped believing in fairy tales only in creating them for her clients. Why would she believe something so magical would happen to her after being scammed by her ex-husband, causing her loss of business and social standing. But when Adam Simmons, candidate for governor of Virginia comes along, making a proposition that would not only help propel him in the race, but also relieve her of her financial worries, she has to redefine what fairy tales are made of.

In Name Only explores one man and one woman's decision made out of convenience that forces them to consider there was something else at play. They both yearned for love.

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About the Author

Contemporary Romance Author Sean D. Young, a native of Gary, Indiana uses her vivid imagination to craft heartwarming and passionate love stories that deal with family, forgiveness, promise, romance and redemption. Her debut novel TOTAL BLISS was published in 2005. At an early age, Sean found that she loved words and tried to read everything she could get her hands on. She joined her first book club “Sweet Pickles” at the age of 7. Writing would come later, when she wrote short stories for her own enjoyment, then she wrote the Easter play for the youth at her church at the age of 12.Sean, a graphic/web designer loves building websites and graphics almost as much as she loves writing her stories. She loves working in her church and lives in Northwest Indiana with her family.

CONNECT WITH SEAN D. YOUNG

AUTHOR SITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | GOODREADS | AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

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Spotlight: This is So Happening by Amelia Kingston

So Far, So Good, Book 2

Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance

Release Date: August 4, 2020

Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing

A torturously tempting love story.

Jessica ‘Jessie’ Allen is sugary sweet and perpetually perky. Running on an endless supply of enthusiasm, she’s in constant motion. The people pleaser is running herself ragged to make other people happy—anything to avoid having to figure out what would make her happy.

Devin Bennett is her complete opposite, the immovable object to Jessie’s unstoppable force. The tall, tattooed and brooding mechanic hates change and the perky blonde co-ed shoving it down his throat. Jessie is drawn to him like a valley girl to an outlet mall, but Devin dodges her advances better than a UFC fighter. The longer she’s around, the harder it is to keep his hands off her perfect body and his lips away from her sassy mouth.

For the first time in her life, Jessie knows what she wants. Devin Bennett. And she’s not above torturing him with temptation to make it happen.

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About the Author

Amelia Kingston is many things, the most interesting of which are probably California girl, writer, traveler, and dog mom. She survives on chocolate, coffee, wine, and sarcasm. Not necessarily in that order.

She’s been blessed with a patient husband who’s embraced her nomad ways and traveled with her to over 30 countries across 5 continents (I’m coming for you next, Antarctica!). She’s also been cursed with an impatient (although admittedly adorable) terrier who pouts when her dinner is 5 minutes late.

She writes about strong, stubborn, flawed women and the men who can't help but love them. Her irreverent books aim to be silly and fun with the occasional storm cloud to remind us to appreciate the sunny days. As a hopeless romantic, her favorite stories are the ones that remind us all that while love is rarely perfect, it’s always worth chasing.

Connect:

Website: https://www.authorameliakingston.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/akingstonbooks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/akingstonbooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akingstonbooks/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amelia-kingston

Promo Link: http://bookbuzz.net/blog/romantic-comedy-this-is-so-happening/