Spotlight: Christmas Miracle in Jamaica by Ann McIntosh

This first story in The Christmas Project series sees neurologist Chloe Bailey and surgeon Sam Powell reunited in beautiful Jamaica, where they have to face the consequences of that one hot night!

’Tis the season For surprises!

One unforgettable night with surgeon Sam Powell signaled a newfound independence for freshly divorced neurologist Chloe Bailey. She never thought she’d see Sam again, until a new assignment takes her to stunning Jamaica for Christmas and Sam is there, too! But when Chloe discovers she’s pregnant, it’s life-changing for both of them! Sam will always be the father of her baby, but is he about to become a whole lot more?

Excerpt

Waking up five thousand miles away from her London home to her solicitor’s text saying the entire ordeal of getting free from Finn was over had made her equal parts sad and relieved. Finn had fought the divorce every step of the way, making what should have been a straightforward matter into a circus. Creating discord, spouting ridiculous demands and accusations, trying to force Chloe to go back to him rather than go through with severing the marriage.

She hadn’t cheated or lied. Finn had. Yet here she was, left holding the bag.

As she twisted the empty glass back and forth between her fingers, she heard her grandmother’s voice, clear as day, as though the older lady was beside her and whispered into her ear.

“Anyone who thinks life is always going to be easy is a jackass. When things get tough, lift up your head and look for the advantage. There’s always one, but usually you have to seek it out.”

That was Gran’s reaction anytime one of the family was dispirited or gloomy, but the familiar refrain rang hollow now.

“What possible advantage could there be to this mess?” she muttered.

But her brain was already whirring, putting aside the depressing, self-pitying thoughts and searching for the elusive silver lining.

Professionally, the breakup hadn’t changed anything. Her position at the Royal Kensington Hospital was both secure and rewarding, and the cutting-edge research she was involved in gave her a great deal of satisfaction. It was personally that she’d suffered, and perhaps that was where she could benefit?

All her life she’d been so careful, terrified of diminishing her good name, constantly aware that her parents expected her to set the best possible example for her younger siblings. Well, much of that had gone out the window over the last couple of years, leaving her…

Free.

To do things she’d wanted to but shied away from because they were risky or could potentially make others think less of her.

She’d always been so careful, so conservative and conventional. Wasn’t it time she let loose a little?

“Can I get you another tonic water?”

Startled, Chloe looked up at the bartender, and instinctively nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

She wasn’t ready to retire to her lonely hotel bed, knowing she’d only lie sleepless while she wrestled with all the ramifications of the life-changes she was going through.

But as the other woman began to turn away, Chloe was struck by a totally different type of impulse.

“Wait,” she said, causing the bartender to pause. “Do you serve mojitos?”

“Sure,” the woman replied with a smile. “Wouldn’t be a real bar if we didn’t.”

“I’ve always wanted to try one,” Chloe said, ignoring the whisper in her head telling her she rarely drank and she should be more careful, here in a strange city with no one to watch out for her.

“One mojito, coming up,” the bartender said, her smile widening.

“Brilliant,” Chloe replied, grinning in return.

When her drink came, she silently toasted her grandmother and her own quiet revolution, determined to make up for all the lost years of being so timid she’d forgotten how to actually live.

And when she found her gaze snagged by that of a very handsome man sitting across the bar, she refused to give in to the impulse to look away. Instead, she kept her eyes locked on his and raised her glass once more to her lips to sip the delicious liquid.

Then, as the gentleman in question rose and began to make his way toward her, she let herself smile, just a little, feeling excitement quicken her blood.

Here’s to new beginnings.

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About the Author

I was born in the tropics, Jamaica to be precise, lived in the frozen North (Ontario, Canada) for a number of years, and now reside in sunny central Florida with my husband. I'm a proud Mama to three grown children, love tea, crafting, animals (except reptiles!), bacon, and the ocean. I firmly believe in the power of romance to heal, inspire and provide hope in our complex world.

Connect with the Author 

Website: https://www.authorannmcintosh.com/

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorAnnMc

Spotlight: Tell Me Why: I Want It That Way by Ninon Amey

Romance

Published: February 2021

Sarah, dedicated to her friends and family, struggles to find her way in life. She only enjoys escaping reality thanks to the books she has to read as part of her job.

Axel is doing his best to deal with everyday problems, and he must confront his painful past while his memories resurface. Music is his only outlet.

Will their encounter help them face their own traumatic experience in order to be reconciled with life, but most importantly with themselves?

A moving story about resilience.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Ninon Amey is a french author.

She began to write in 2017 following therapy. Writing allowed her to find a balance in her life as a woman and a mother.

Ninon Amey embarks on self-publishing with moving contemporary romances and tackles, with a soft and sensitive pen, themes that are close to her heart such as mourning, resilience, or family secrets. Friendship, family and love always have a central place in his stories, which know how to captivate the reader from the first pages.

Connect:

Website: https://www.ninonamey.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ninonamey

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

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

Promo Link: http://bookbuzz.net/blog/romance-tell-me-why-i-want-it-that-way/

Spotlight: Gray Hair Don't Care by Karen Booth

Release Date: 2/8/2021

Everything went wrong. And then she went gray.

At 47, newly divorced makeup artist Lela Bennett is dreading her next steps. Dating. Meeting people. Not letting herself go. But then she runs into Donovan James and tries something different—sleeping with her sexy crush from college. Unfortunately, in a post-orgasm stupor, Lela confesses she was in love with Donovan all those years ago. He responds by leaving while she sleeps. The next morning, her gray hairs are practically taunting her. She knows she has to get it together. Forget men. Embrace her age. Own her gray.

Donovan James is a marketing genius, but his ex-wives will tell you—nothing freaks him out like feelings. Three years after his one-night stand with Lela, he’s focused on his daughter’s lifestyle company, but unprepared to meet the face of their new beauty brand. It’s Lela. With stunning silver locks and new confidence, she’s no longer swayed by his charms. When business starts booming, the universe seems intent on throwing them together time and again. And suddenly, two people convinced that romance was behind them are wondering if love could be what’s next.

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

Karen Booth is a midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on '80s music and repeated readings of Forever by Judy Blume. Karen writes contemporary romance and women's fiction, almost always about the dreamy guy you never thought you'd get. Karen is co-founder of Seasoned Romance, a 3500+ member Facebook reader group dedicated to romance with characters 35+. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages.

Connect:

Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/KarenBoothFB

Twitter: http://bit.ly/KarenBoothTwitter

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/kbnews

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Pinterest: http://bit.ly/KarenBoothPinterest      

Spotlight: The Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman

Inspired by Jeffery Eugenides Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex, and set in the ancient city of Smyrna, The Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman (releasing September 19 from Head of Zeus) follows the intertwining fates of four families as their peaceful city is ripped apart by the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Birth, death, romance and grief are all to come as these peaceful, cosmopolitan streets are used as bargaining chips in the wake of the First World War. Told through the intertwining fates of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family, this unforgettable novel reveals a city, and a culture, now lost to time.

Excerpt

Before the Leather Briefcase

Edith was reading the newspaper when her mother entered the dining room in her swirling pearl-coloured dressing gown. 

It was one of those rare days in Bournabat when the sun was nowhere to be seen. The sky had darkened and forbidding rumbles could be heard from the hills. The wind was equally angry, taking its fury out on the thin, bare branches of the apricot and sour-cherry trees in front of the window. 

In defiance of the storm outside, the Lamarck dining room smelled of toasted bread and wood smoke. Butler Mustafa had lit the yellow enamel stove in the corner after morning prayers and one of the maids had placed a record on the gramophone – a Mendelssohn sonata for violin and piano.  Juliette required that music be playing in the house when she woke. She had no patience left for the silence which had been mandated following her husband’s death. She had purchased gramophones for each of the downstairs rooms as well as one for her bedroom. 

Edith’s gaze, lifted from her newspaper, slipped by her mother in the doorway and focused on the oil portrait of her father hanging on the wall. Her father used to say that introverted people were most at peace in wintertime. Just as the shape of a tree became apparent once the leaves, blossom and fruit had fallen, so could the depths of a person’s soul be revealed in winter’s silence. What a shame that winter was so short in this city whose residents lived their lives outdoors or in front of open windows. She remembered with nostalgia the long, howling, winter nights at the convent school in Paris, when the girls would sit together around the huge fireplace in the library, reading books. The convent school was no more than a dream now. The classmates alongside whom she had sat, all in a row, leaning on their elbows, had graduated last spring. She had not been among them. 

Sighing, she again buried her head in the newspaper. It reported that the Comédie Française would be performing in Smyrna. The Consul had spoken in person to Jules Claretie, the director of the world’s oldest and greatest theatre company, and had obtained a promise that they would stage a production at the Sporting Club the following year.  La Réforme newspaper had made this a headline story to emphasize the pre-eminence of French culture among the elite of the city. 

‘Bonjour, ma chérie.’ Juliette leaned over to kiss her daughter’s right cheek, glanced at the newspaper over her shoulder, and then asked in a vivacious voice, ‘Did you sleep well?’ 

Edith nodded without raising her head. There had been a strong earthquake in the capital of Jamaica. The streets of Kingston were filled with the debris of ruined buildings and people with terrified eyes. She peered intently at the paper so as to see the black and white photographs more clearly. 

‘Just look at the weather – how dark it has become! It is as if not clouds but threatening armies are approaching. I declare I am in distress this morning.’ Juliette took her place at the table and placed a smile upon her face, which looked naked without its make-up. ‘Have you seen your brothers or had they already left when you got up? Where are Gertrude and Marie – still sleeping?’ 

Edith glanced around at the empty chairs and shrugged.  She had only now noticed that her sisters-in-law had not come down to breakfast that morning. 

Without waiting for an answer, Juliette continued. ‘Ah, bien sûr, I remember now. They were going into the city today. Gertrude’s cousin has arrived from Amsterdam. They were to meet at the Café de Paris. You should have gone with them, my dear Edith. Gertrude and Marie must be considered your sisters now. But isn’t the weather horrid.  Krima! What a shame! Listen to what I propose. After breakfast, let’s go up and see the baby together. What do you say? She’s begun to smile, did you know that, Auntie Edith? Between you and me, she’s looking more and more like your brother. I haven’t said as much to Marie, in order not to hurt her feelings, but little Daphne is the picture of  her father. She even looks rather like me, I think. After all, your brother greatly resembles me.’ 

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Audible | Hardcover

About the Author

Defne Suman was born in Istanbul and grew up on Prinkipo Island. She gained a Masters in sociology from the Bosphorus University then worked as a teacher in Thailand and Laos where she studied Far Eastern philosophy and mystic disciplines. She later continued her studies in Oregon and now lives in Athens with her husband. The Silence of Scheherazade was first published in Turkey and Greece in 2015 and is her English language debut.

Spotlight: An Impossible Promise by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets

Book 2 in the Providence Falls Trilogy. Outlander meets The Lake House (movie) in this epic love story that crosses continents and centuries. Master storyteller Jude Deveraux joins forces with up and coming author Tara Sheets to create a series that will appeal to women's fiction and romance readers alike. A rogue thief in 1840s Ireland is sent by angels to a contemporary small town in America to make amends for his crimes in the past. Forbidden to tell anyone why he is there he must convince the woman he loves to marry another man or be damned for eternity.

In one century she loved him madly, and in another she wants nothing to do with him

In this second book of a trilogy, the story of Liam O’Connor and Cora McLeod continues. While they were lovers in the past, things are very different in the present. Liam and Cora are both police officers and roomates in Providence Falls, North Carolina. Liam is trying to do as the angels have commanded--make sure Cora falls in love with another man—but Cora is not the impressionable innocent girl Liam remembers. She's strong and smart and not easily manipulated. Liam is forced to face the truth about himself as he comes to realize that he truly isn't the right man for Cora. But, as Liam is coming to that conclusion, Cora is starting to see him in a new light.

Liam wants Cora for himself, but with his soul hanging in the balance, he must choose between a stolen moment in time or an eternity of damnation.

An Impossible Promise is romantic, fun and pure escape.

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

THE CELESTIAL CHAMBER OF JUDGMENT WAS not cozy by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the time it appeared to be nothing more than white roiling walls of mist, which the angel Agon found downright dreary. But his associate Samael deemed it necessary, believing that human souls facing judgment were better off with no distractions. This was probably why Samael’s face was now scrunched in open disapproval—an expression Agon had grown used to over the centuries.

“What,” Samael demanded, pointing an elegant finger at the object against the chamber wall, “is that?” With his blond ringlets and cherub cheeks, he looked like a Renaissance painting of a frazzled choir boy.

It made Agon want to smile, but he refrained. For an angel as old as himself, he’d learned a thing or two. Instead, he drew up to his full height, impressive even by angelic standards, and stretched his snowy wings wide. “It’s called a recliner,” he said cheerfully. “For sitting and resting. Very comforting to humans, from what I gather.”

Samael looked incredulous. “I’ve told you before, this is no place of solace. Human souls are summoned here to face judgment, and not all of them are headed to a comfortable destination.”

“True.” Agon sat on the edge of the overstuffed chair, swiveling left, then right. “But I see no harm in offering them a place to rest while we review their lives. If nothing else, it will provide an alternative to their usual pacing and wringing of hands and stumbling about in distress. It is pitiable when they do that, you must admit.”

Samael sighed, shook his head and turned toward the wall of mist. A good sign, Agon decided. For now, it seemed the new chair could stay. Perhaps later he could bring in a few other earthly things to liven up the place, but what was that human expression? Ah, yes. Baby steps.

“We haven’t time for your antics,” Samael muttered, waving a hand at the wall of mist. “Our wayward rogue is about to learn a valuable lesson.” 

The mist cleared, revealing a city street at night. A swarthy stranger in a black leather jacket and designer jeans pulled his motorcycle to a stop outside a sports bar.

Agon rose from the chair and went to stand beside Samael as they watched the scene unfold. “You’re sure this man is just like Liam O’Connor?”

“He has all the same traits as the rogue,” Samael said. “The arrogance, the selfish motives, the questionable morals. He wasn’t originally scheduled to cross paths with Liam, but it was easy enough to arrange.” 

Agon tilted his dark head, studying the man who was now sauntering toward the entrance of the bar. A neon sign that read ROOKIES blinked above the door. “And you’re certain introducing this man to Liam will serve a useful purpose?”

Samael crossed his arms. “It will be good for Liam to see his own personality traits reflected in someone else. Perhaps then, through serious introspection, the rogue will realize his many faults and be at peace with the task we’ve given him.”

“Perhaps,” Agon said, though he wasn’t so sure. Liam O’Connor and peace did not seem to mix. The man was hell-bent on winning Cora McLeod for himself, no matter how much he assured the angels he was trying to help Cora achieve her true destiny by marrying Finley Walsh. Agon knew what desperation looked like in a man’s eyes, and paired with determination, it could be a dangerous combination. Liam had both in abundance. “I hope it works. He only has two months left to achieve his task.”

Samael let out a huff. “It has to work. We can’t interfere with his free will, and this is the last thing I could think of to help steer him in the right direction. We’ve already agreed to some of the ‘boosts’ he’s asked for. Rudimentary computer knowledge. Fair warning when we plan to visit. We’ve even made it so he’d no longer feel pain whenever he and Cora touch.” He gave Agon a stern look. “That last one was only because you advocated so strongly on his behalf.”

“I think we can trust him to make the right decisions,” Agon said. “I know he seems like a lost cause, but let us have faith that he will prevail.”

“Mmm, faith,” Samael said as they watched the tall man disappear into the bar. “In a rogue. What could possibly go wrong?”

Excerpted from An Impossible Promise by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets. Copyright © 2021 by Deveraux Inc. Published by MIRA Books. 

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Audible | Hardcover

About the Author

Jude Deveraux is the author of forty-three New York Times bestsellers, including For All Time, Moonlight in the Morning and A Knight in Shining Armor. She was honored with a Romantic Times Pioneer Award in 2013 for her distinguished career. To date, there are more than sixty million copies of her books in print worldwide. Jude lives in Kansas City, Missouri

Connect:

Author website: https://judedeveraux.com/

Twitter: @JudeDeveraux1      

Facebook: https://facebook.com/224518397561073 

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

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/28574.Jude_Deveraux 

Tara Sheets is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women's fiction. Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests nationwide, and her debut novel, DON'T CALL ME CUPCAKE, won the 2016 Golden Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America. Tara lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Connect:

Author website: https://tarasheets.com/

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

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

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17082616.Tara_Sheets 

Cover Reveal: A Heart So Wild by Raine Thomas

Publication date: October 12th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Sports

Synopsis:

He’s a sexy left winger for the NHL’s newest expansion team, the Atlanta Siege, and he’s a player in every sense of the word.

Callan Murphy’s on a mission: get his teammate laid.

A night out at Atlanta’s hottest nightclub is all he’ll need to find the perfect woman to blow his goalie’s … mind. But when he catches a glimpse of a dark-haired beauty standing across the dance floor, winging for his friend is the last thing on his mind.

She’s perfect, all right. Perfect for him. Now he just has to convince her of that, something he never expects to be such a challenge.

She’s a mysterious bombshell who’s about to teach him what it’s like to play in the big leagues of the heart.

Roxy Wagner’s on a mission: get her best friend laid.

When they head out to ladies’ night in search of Mr. Right Now, it doesn’t take her long to spot the two tall, dark, and stud-lies watching them from across the club. One look at the bearded hottie with the seductive heat in his eyes tells her she’s about to go up against a real player.

She should know … it takes one to know one. And she’s not interested in playing for keeps.

It starts with a night out winging for friends. How it all ends will depend on whether Callan can find a way to tame Roxy’s wild heart.

Game on.

About the Author

Raine Thomas is a multiple award-winning author of bestselling romance. Known for character-driven stories that inspire the imagination, Raine has signed with multiple award-winning producer Chase Chenowith of Back Fence Productions to bring her popular Daughters of Saraqael trilogy to the big screen. She's a proud indie author who is living the dream.

Raine is a hopeless romantic with a background in the fields of mental health and wedding planning...two areas that intersect far more than one would think. Her years working with children and young adults with emotional and behavioral challenges inspired her to create protagonists who overcome their own conflicts. When she isn't writing or glued to e-mail or social networking sites, Raine can usually be found vacationing with her husband and daughter on one of Florida's beautiful beaches or crossing the border to visit with her Canadian friends and relatives.

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