Audio Spotlight: Starr Valentine by Abigail Drake and narrated by Kasey Miracle

Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Publisher: Abigail Drake⎮2022

Genre: Paranormal Romance; Young Adult

Release date: Mar. 23, 2022

Synopsis: Starr Valentine, the most popular cheerleader at Middleton High, has led a charmed life. But the day she is chosen as the youngest member ever of homecoming court, is also the day her parents reveal a secret more than a decade old: They are monarchs in exile from a mysterious planet called Vega, and it’s time for all of them to return home.

Best day ever, ruined!

While she likes the idea of being a princess, Starr realizes something is terribly wrong when they arrive on their new world. She’s always been the best-looking girl in the room, but everyone is ignoring her and fawning over her frumpy older sister, Astra, and it doesn’t make sense. Although Astra is the sweetest person around, she’s never even had a date. So why is she now getting all the attention?

Starr soon figures out the awful truth. The standard of beauty on Vega is different, and Starr isn’t pretty anymore. To make matters worse, everybody treats her like she’s annoying and shallow, including an irritatingly handsome young duke named Julian. Can Starr find a way to get noticed again, or is this once beautiful swan doomed to remain an ugly duckling forever?

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About the Author: Abigail Drake

Abigail Drake is the award-winning author of seventeen novels, but she didn’t start her career in writing. She majored in Japanese and economics in college, and spent years traveling the world, collecting stories wherever she visited. She collected a husband from Istanbul on her travels, too, and he is still her favorite souvenir.

Abigail is a coffee addict, a puppy wrangler, and the mother of three adult sons. She writes contemporary romance, women’s fiction, and young adult fiction, and has taught workshops for many different writing organizations. In her spare time, she blogs about her dog, Capone, and teaches writing classes for children at her local library.

In 2019, Abigail was awarded an honorable mention for her book "Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone" in the Writer's Digest Self-Published E-book Awards. She is the winner of the 2017 Prism Award for her book "Traveller", the International Digital Award for her young adult novel, "Tiger Lily", and the Stiletto Contest for "Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone." In addition, she was named a finalist in the Golden Pen, the Golden Leaf, the Dante Rossetti Book Award, and the Cygnus Award for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction.

Abigail is represented by Lauren Bieker of FinePrint Literary Management and she is the cofounder of Romancing Your Muse (www.romancingyourmuse.com). For more information, visit her website at www.abigaildrake.net.

Website

About the Narrator: Kasey Miracle

Kasey Miracle has been in productions since she was a child. In college, she performed in plays and musicals (including MacBeth, The Mouse Who Roared, Rent, Wicked, The Glass Menagerie and more). She wrote award winning scripts for commercials and helped create backgrounds and sound effects in her spare time. After college, she taught Computers in an Elementary School, was an Elementary School Librarian and helped with sound and visuals in Chapels, Productions, and Events. She was thrilled to help host the first STEM Competition in her city. 

When she became a mom to an amazing, Autistic, little boy, she altered her course to voice over so she could be with him while also helping others like him enjoy works that they may not be able to read easily. 

She is passionate about her work and does her best to make the entire process as hassle free as possible! She gives her absolute best to every single project, no matter how big or small!

Website

Spotlight: The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding by Lydia Kang

From bestselling author Lydia Kang comes a spellbinding WWII mystery about hidden identities, wartime paranoia, and the tantalizing power of deceit. 

The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding (releasing May 1, 2022 from Lake Union Publishing) takes place in Brooklyn in 1942, when war rages overseas as brother and sister Will and Maggie Scripps contribute to the war effort stateside. Ambitious Will secretly scouts for the Manhattan Project while grief-stricken Maggie works at the Navy Yard, writing letters to her dead mother between shifts. 

But the siblings' quiet lives change when they discover a beautiful woman hiding under their back stairs. This stranger harbors an obsession with poisons, an affection for fine things, and a singular talent for killing small creatures. As she draws Will and Maggie deeper into her mysterious past, they both begin to suspect she's quite dangerous-all while falling helplessly under her spell. 

With whispers of spies in dark corners and the world's first atomic bomb in the works, the vistor's sudden presence in Maggie's and Will's lives raises questions about who she is and what she wants. Is this mysterious woman someone they can trust- or a threat to everything they hold dear? 

Excerpt

It was a startling sound, her voice. 

Maggie was used to only ever hearing Will speak within their small apartment. Even then, there had been scant words between them, and not an iota of discord. Without a syllable uttered, Maggie knew when Will wanted another cup of coffee, or an extra serving at dinner. When she was more tired than usual, Will would soundlessly rise from the kitchen table, touch her shoulder to gently pry her away from the sink, and wipe the dishes himself. 

The only other feminine voice that had ever existed within these walls was their mother’s ambivalent one. She had always sounded like she was asking a question, even when making a statement. Dinner’s ready? I think I have a cold? I’m not sad? 

This woman’s voice was so very different. 

For one, it was deeper than Maggie’s girlish voice, and her mother’s hesitant one. Husky almost, as if cigarette smoke had entangled the woman’s vocal cords and lured them to a permanently deep register. 

“Please,” the woman rasped again, just as Will pushed the bedroom door back open. Maggie was filled with a thousand questions. Who was this stranger? Why had she been unconscious? Where did she come from? 

But as Maggie started to ask, the woman’s eyes fluttered. 

She pushed herself off the pillow in an attempt to sit up, but the muscles of her forearms spasmed, and she sank back onto the bed. Her eyelids fluttered closed as unconsciousness took her again. 

Will turned toward the kitchen, but Maggie tugged his sleeve. 

“Will. No. She asked us not to call the police.” 

“She could be trying to rob us, Mags. She could be a s-“ he stopped before saying spy. Everyone in the country was paranoid about spies. It was only a few months ago when German spies had been dropped off by U-boat on the beaches of Amagansett, a hundred miles east of New York City. And six days before pearl Harbor, thirty-three men in a Nazi spy ring had been rounded up. 

Saboteurs and spies were not fiction. Will was always suspicious, more than an ordinary citizen. He didn’t want her to know much about his work, but he’d let it slip once- just once- that General Groves was the boss of his boss. Rumor had it that Grove’s work, and hence Will’s, could end the war. 

“Look at her,” Maggie whispered, leaning toward Will’s good right ear, as she did whenever she needed to speak softly. “What could she steal? Her clothes alone are worth more than our rent.” 

Will hesitated. She knew what he was thinking. There was no telephone nearby. Mrs. Jardin in the house next door had been wanting to buy one, but installations were on hold due to the war- so he’d have to ask someone else. Their neighbors would surely want to know the who-what-where-why-and-hows of the phone call. Even if they didn’t ask, the entire party line would be listening. Her brother was mortally allergic to gossip, and not only because of the secrecy of his work. 

Maggie, though-she had a weakness for gossip. She lingered at doorways to hear snippets of conversations when she made her dimout rounds, and leaned closer to the neighbors waiting in the long lines at the grocery. Everyone else’s lives seemed vastly more interesting than hers. And now, Maggie was on the verge of owning her very own kernel of gossip. 

“Please, Will. We ought to help our fellow human beings, don’t you think? She’s probably running away from a beau who’s been cruel to her. Or had a fight with her parents. Leave her be, just one night! I’ll nurse her better, and she’ll be on her way.” 

“You’d open up an infirmary if I didn’t protest,” Will growled. But Maggie felt elated. The joke meant he was near to giving in. It was time for him to leave anyway. His classes started soon, and the trolley trip to Brooklyn College took nearly forty minutes. 

She gave him one last puppylike eyebrow raise. 

Will sighed. “All right. One night.” 

She clasped her hands together like a child who’d just been given a new Raggedy Ann doll and followed him to the kitchen. Will gathered his shoulder bag with his schoolbooks, scooped the congealed supper of panda into his mouth. His portion was gone in three swallows. He tore off a hunk of stale crust from the bread box and left. 

Maggie watched out the window of their tiny parlor as he lumbered down the street and disappeared around the corner.

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About the Author

Lydia Kang is an author and internal medicine physician. She is a graduate of Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, and she completed her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She lives with her family in the Midwest.

Spotlight: The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait by Liese Sherwood-Fabre

Genre: Historical Mystery 

A long-buried past. A stolen portrait. The artist’s murder. Can Sherlock discover the connection between the three before he’s stopped permanently?

Sherlock can’t shake his apprehension about a family trip to Paris. His mother’s unflappable confidence vanished months ago, and her anxiety has set the whole family on edge. His greatest fears are realized when they witness the death of one of Mrs. Holmes’ former suitors.

As Sherlock seeks to unravel the reason behind the artist’s murder, he unearths a long-buried secret about his mother and survives several attempts to keep him from getting to the truth.

Can he bring a murderer to justice before he’s buried with these hidden secrets forever?

The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait is the gripping fourth case in The Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes. If you enjoy traditional historical mysteries, you’ll love this origin series about the world’s greatest consulting detective.

Buy The Adventure of the Purloined Portrait to learn how Sherlock’s past shaped the sleuth he became. 

Excerpt

I stared over the ship’s railing and spoke to my brother Mycroft without glancing at him. “I feel this trip may be a mistake.”

I saw him turn toward me from the corner of my eye. “The crossing’s almost over. You’ll feel better when you get on dry land.”

“That’s not what I meant.” I glared at him. “Mother hasn’t been herself since Easter. Out of the blue, she announces we’re going to Paris while you’re still recovering from a gunshot wound. And she’d been distracted even before that.”

Mother had always been the family rock. I’d rarely seen her rattled, but even granite can break under pressure.

During our Easter holiday in London, she appeared preoccupied by matters she never explained to me or my brother. At the time, I’d put it down to concern over my father’s efforts to invest in a business venture with an old school chum as well as Mycroft’s wounding at the hands of our kidnappers. Both, however, were now behind us. The investment had produced a modest return, and I saw no lingering problems related to Mycroft’s injury. All the same, we’d barely arrived home from school before she’d packed our trunks and shuffled us all off to Newhaven for the steamship ride to Dieppe. 

“I do believe bringing the entire family is a ruse,” he said after his own inspection of the sea. 

“Including Uncle Ernest in the trip did surprise me.” Her brother rarely left the estate or his workshop. “Perhaps she thinks it will do him some good. They report being happy growing up there.”

He glanced at the smoke trailing the ship. “If she was so happy there, why doesn’t she show it?”

I ran through all the scenarios—from something as benign as a sudden bout of nostalgia to a fatal illness calling her back to see her French relatives one last time—and shook my head. “Without more information, I would only be speculating. You yourself have said that can be counterproductive. Whatever the reason, something has truly unnerved her.” I turned back to the ocean, seeking any indication of the coastline. “And whatever it is lies in Paris.”

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About the Author 

Liese Sherwood-Fabre knew she was destined to write when she got an A+ in the second grade for her story about Dick, Jane, and Sally’s ruined picnic. After obtaining her PhD, she joined the federal government and worked and lived internationally for more than fifteen years. Returning to the states, she seriously pursued her writing career, garnering such awards as a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart contest and a Pushcart Prize nomination. A recognized Sherlockian scholar, her essays have appeared in scion newsletters, the Baker Street Journal, and Canadian Holmes. She has recently turned this passion into an origin story series on Sherlock Holmes. The first book, The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife, was the CIBA Mystery and Mayhem 2020 winner. 

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Spotlight: Master of Death by M.H.B.

(Kisses of Sorrow, #2)
Publication date: April 28th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

One night.   
Two futures. 
Almost three years of repair. 
Four beating hearts healing from pain.  
Five lives forever tied.

Falling for my boss, Damon Dreygon, was never part of the plan.  

I was meant to seek from him what my boyfriend, Harvey Stark, refused to give me--someone to kiss me, someone to touch me, and maybe even someone to heal my wounds.

Instead in Damon, I found a mentor. I found a dark prince minus the charming part. Most importantly, in Damon, I found my voice coupled with my own strength.  

This was never supposed to hurt Harvey.  
Damon and I were never meant to be together.  

With each choice, an entirely different future greets me, yet a few things remain the same: we’ve all known pain, we’re all in need of healing, and we’ve all hurt each other in very different ways. 

All I wanted was for this melancholy to disappear so that I could find peace.  

But peace is hard to reach when you’re too busy chasing secrets.

Secrets I wish would’ve stayed buried.
Secrets that meddle with my dreams.
Secrets I’ll be taking to the grave . . . 

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

M . H . B . graduated law from a Canadian University. She loves spending time with her partner and her German Shepherd Dog. She has a passion for animals and enjoys the simple things in life: books, music, chocolate, sunny days, and overall wellness. When she is not writing, her mind is in another world, with a book in hand.

Connect:
Link to Website: https://mhbmhb.wixsite.com/books
Link to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/mhbauthor
Link to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authormhb
Instagram: @mhb.author

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Spotlight: Love You Right by Julia Kent

(Love You, Maine, #1)
Publication date: April 26th 2022
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

A missed opportunity five years ago makes for an unexpected encounter now between two people meant for each other – but who square off in a very public battle of wills in the small town of Love You, Maine, where every day is Valentine’s Day. Can love conquer all in a town steeped in it?

Kell Luview refuses to be a sucker at love again. Five years ago, he left D.C. with his tail between his legs and his heart broken. Fiercely protective of his small town in rural Maine, he’s determined to save the family tree business and avoid his feelings at all costs, no matter how much he longs to solve the mystery of what happened in D.C.

L.A. native Rachel Hart hates being underestimated almost as much as she hates this small town. She has two goals on this trip: get out of the cheesy tourist trap of Love You, Maine with a completed business deal, and avoid running into Kell, her old friend from D.C. who never became an old flame because of a huge misunderstanding.

One that still aches.

When her rental car breaks down on a logging road and Kell comes to her rescue, it’s clear he’s a changed man – and not for the good. Grumpy and reserved, he pushes all her buttons, still stubbornly convinced she betrayed him all those years ago. He’s never forgiven her, and she’s never forgiven herself for carrying a torch for him.

An embarrassing incident gets the town gossip mill going when residents wrongly assume Kell and Rachel are the newest couple to find love in the most romantic place on Earth. But the townsfolk aren’t wrong for long…

As Rachel breaks through his defenses and charms the town, he faces his biggest fear: all those pesky feelings he’s been avoiding.

Because they’re all about Rachel now.

And maybe they always were.

Can Kell and Rachel fight their growing attraction in the one place in the world where you can’t avoid love?

If you’re looking for a fun read about enemies to lovers, forced proximity, heroines who get their comeuppance and sworn bachelors felled by unexpected true love, featuring a hot bearded lumberjack impervious to poison ivy, and a city-slicker, jaded career woman with a penchant for great coffee, set in a small town in New England – then this is your book.

Grab a cup of (properly good) coffee, a can of hot cocoa mix, a jar of Fluff and maybe some calamine lotion (just in case), and get your happymeter ready as you read the very first book in New York Times bestselling romantic comedy author Julia Kent’s Love You, Maine series – where love isn’t just a feeling – it’s a way of life.

 ✓Standalone
✓Enemies to Lovers
✓Small town romance
✓Lumberjack and city slicker outsider
… and a cat named Calamine

Excerpt

“Kell,” she whispered against his mouth. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For this.” She motioned at the romantic dinner he’d created for the two of them, the wide table in this conference room an ample spread for a…

Ample spread.

“We haven’t even had dinner. Thank me after.”

She batted her eyelashes. “Is that an offer?”

“Rachel,” he said, moving his hand from her waist to cup her ass. “That’s more than an offer.”

He started to kiss her again, but she put her fingers on his lips. “If we don’t eat dinner first, we’ll never eat. And I have a meeting here in this very room, to try to pitch the deal again, in three days. Boundaries, Kell – boundaries. I refuse to have sex on this conference table.”

“The thought never, ever occurred to me,” he lied.

“Liar.”

“Caught.”

With a deep laugh he adored, she reached for the bottle of wine. “How about you uncork this and we start with a lovely glass.”

“Fine. The table is off the table.”

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About the Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future.

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy).

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls.

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

Connect:
Website: http://jkentauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jkentauthor
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-kent
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3238619.Julia_Kent
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Kent/e/B00A99V268/

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Spotlight: Bridges by Linda Griffin

Published by: The Wild Rose Press
Publication date: April 25th 2022
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance

Synopsis:

In 1963, Neil Vincent, a middle-aged World War II veteran and “Christian atheist” is working at Westfield Court as a chauffeur. He spends most of his spare time reading. Mary Claire DeWinter is a young, blind, Catholic college student and reluctant heiress. To secure her inheritance, she has to marry within a year, and her aunt is pressuring her to marry a rich man who teased and bullied her when she was a child. Neil and Mary Claire shouldn’t even be friends, but the gulf between them is bridged by a shared love of books. Can they cross the bridge to more?

Excerpt

On the drive to Brierly Station, he didn’t speculate about who Miss DeWinter might be. It wasn’t his job to know who she was, only to meet her train and take her safely back to Westfield Court. She wouldn’t be the last of the friends and relatives who would gather as the old man’s life came to its long-awaited and peaceful end.

Brierly was bustling today, as restless as the St. James household. He was in plenty of time for the train and sat in the car reading. The car was a Bentley Mark VI, as well-maintained and highly polished as it was the day it was purchased. The book he was reading was Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native.

When the train rumbled in, he got out of the car. He stood patiently on the platform as the passengers disembarked, holding up a small slate on which he had chalked DEWINTER in large capitals. There weren’t many passengers, but they were briefly delayed while the conductor helped a blind woman navigate the steps. Neil’s gaze fell expectantly on a woman in her thirties, with an awful hat, but she was immediately met by a portly man and a teenage boy. No other likely prospects appeared, and he waited for someone to respond to the sign. No one did.

Finally, only two passengers were left on the platform—a small, homely man and the blind woman. Blind girl, really. She couldn’t be more than twenty. She had a jointed white cane, and her large sunglasses didn’t cover the edges of the scars on her face. She would not have been beautiful even without the scars—too thin, for starters, of average height but with small bones. On the other hand, her face might once have been pretty, and her hair was clean and shining, raven black, and well brushed. She was too pale, and the scars around her eyes were red and ugly. She looked a little lost.

Feeling foolish, he lowered the slate. “Miss DeWinter?” he asked as he approached her.

“Yes,” she said, turning toward his voice with a smile.

“I’m Vincent,” he said. “The St. James chauffeur.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Vincent,” she said. “Thank you for meeting me.” Her voice was soft, her enunciation perfect.

The porter fetched her luggage—a single gray vinyl suitcase with a flower decal—from the depot and turned it over to Neil with a cheerful nod. Jane would be disappointed, especially if the girl’s other clothes were as plain as what she wore, a simple dark dress with long sleeves and an unfashionable, below-the-knees hemline. “Would you take my arm?” he asked, positioning himself so she could place her hand in the crook of his elbow, which she did with easy confidence.

“Do you have a Christian name?” she asked.

“Yes, miss. It’s Neil.”

“That’s a good name,” she said. “Mine is Mary Claire. How is my grandfather, do you know?”

Neil, who hadn’t known the old man had any grandchildren, said, “Hanging on, miss.”

He opened the car door and helped her into the back seat.

“You don’t have to call me ‘miss’ all the time,” she said. “Please call me Mary Claire. Or my friends at school call me Sunny.”

“Yes, miss,” he said automatically and closed the door.

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About the Author

For more information, visit my website, sign up for my newsletter, and claim a free autographed copy of Stonebridge: https://www.lindagriffinauthor.com/

I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I began my career as a reference and collection development librarian in the Art and Music Section of the San Diego Public Library and then transferred to the Literature and Languages Section, where I had the pleasure of managing the Central Library’s Fiction collection and initiating fiction order lists for the entire library system. Although I also enjoy reading biography, memoir, and history, fiction remains my first love. In addition to the three R’s—reading, writing, and research—I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.

My earliest ambition was to be a “book maker” and I wrote my first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library to spend more time on my writing.

My stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, Thema Literary Journal, The Binnacle, The Nassau Review, Orbis, and Avalon Literary Review, and in the anthologies Short Story America, Vol. 2, The Captive and the Dead, and Australia Burns. Four stories, including one as yet unpublished, received honorable mention in the Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction contests.

Member of RWA, Authors Guild, and Sisters in Crime

Connect:

https://www.lindagriffinauthor.com/

https://twitter.com/LindaGriffinA

https://www.instagram.com/lindagriffinauthor/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18396185.Linda_Griffin

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