Spotlight: Pasko Na, My Love, A Holiday Romance Anthology

Publication date: December 6th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance

Family, heart, and a Merry Christmas Happily Ever After.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all ‘round Hacienda Luz bustled in celebration of Natividad Luz Moore’s 100th birthday.

A Filipino American woman of courage, strength, and heart, Lola Naty has touched the lives of many. Celebrities and politicians make merry, fine dresses and barong Tagalogs shimmer, and food and drink flow freely. And it’s all to honor family, tradition, and the very essence of that thing called love.

While Filipino ballads fill the chilly Northern California air, hearts throb and passions ignite as seven remarkable couples find love in all the right—or wrong—places.

**

From acclaimed and bestselling Filipino American authors—Elle Cruz, Maan Gabriel, Maida Malby, Mia Hopkins, Sarah Smith, and Tif Marcelo—comes Pasko Na, My Love, a holiday romance collection that is sure to warm your heart and uplift your Christmas spirit.

• Volcanic Love by Elle Cruz

• My Only Love by Maan Gabriel

• So It’s You by Maida Malby

• Illicit by Mia Hopkins

• Last Minute by Sarah Smith

• The Deal by Tif Marcelo

Except

From THE DEAL by Tif Marcelo

The second break room door, the one that led to the outside, opened with a bang, and a figure stumbled forward with a grunt. Norah sat up on the couch, stunned at the sight of the man who had earlier been thrown out, all but executing a judo roll. Sweeping back the hair that had fallen over his forehead with his fingers, he stood to his full height and stiffened when he saw her. 

Oliver Moore.

“Oh, hi,” he said.

“Hi.” For a beat, Norah was stunned, not only with surprise, but with how she’d apparently conjured him. Okay, so maybe she was also staring at him because of how goddamned good-looking he was. Though sorely underdressed, he was easily the handsomest man of the evening. His features were those she’d become familiar with while working with the Moore family: light brown skin, high cheekbones, brown hair with streaks of light in between, and a distinctive sharp jawline. 

He was so handsome that had she not been on the clock, and if he wasn’t a Moore, she might have offered to buy him a drink at the bar. Sadly, it had been years. This black hole of celibacy had not been her choice. For so long, she just hadn’t been in the mood, caught up with starting her life over with Braeden.

This man could fill that black hole.

As if he heard her thoughts, an eyebrow shot up. Then he said, “You’re from upstairs.”

“Yes.” She was still breathless. Then she remembered that in order to access that secondary door, he would have needed a key. She grabbed her phone from the couch and clicked through to her recent calls. Her thumb hovered over the name Up To Code, aka her boss Mr. Kawolski. 

He raised a palm. “Wait. N…no…don’t call anyone."

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About the Authors

Elle Cruz is an author of contemporary romance. She has a bachelor’s degree in English and doctoral degree in nursing. By day she works in the medical field, but at night she is writing swoon-worthy stories perfect for all the hopeless romantics out there. In addition to being an author, Elle is active in the writing community and loves to mentor and give advice to new authors. She has a supportive husband and two amazing children.

Maan Gabriel is a mom, wife, dreamer, writer, and advocate for women’s stories in literature. She earned her BA in communications from St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and MPS in public relations and corporate communications from Georgetown University. She has lived in Manila, Brussels, Dakar, and Mexico City. During the day, she works in strategic communications. Gabriel, along with her husband and son, currently calls suburban Washington, D.C. home.

Filipino American author Maida Malby cooks up foodie, multicultural, and contemporary destination romance stories filled with heat, sizzle, spice, and a whole lotta love. She is a member of select writing groups and romance book clubs. Her To-Be-Read Mountain and book reviews are featured on her website maidamalby.com. Readers can also find her on Lone Star Literary Life via her regular Texas Reads Romance column.

Mia Hopkins writes lush romances starring fun, sexy characters who love to get down and dirty. Her award-winning books have been featured by many publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and Entertainment Weekly. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. For more information, please visit www.miahopkinsauthor.com or connect with her on social media @miahopkinsxoxo.

Sarah Smith is a copywriter-turned-author who wants to make the world a lovelier place, one kissing story at a time. Her love of romance began when she was eight and she discovered her auntie's stash of romance novels. She's been hooked ever since. When she's not writing, you can find her hiking, eating chocolate, and perfecting her lumpia recipe.

Tif Marcelo is a veteran US Army nurse and holds a BS in Nursing and a Master’s in public administration. She believes and writes about the strength of families, the endurance of friendship, heartfelt romances, and is inspired daily by her own military hero husband and four children. She hosts The Stories to Love Podcast, and is the USA Today bestselling author of In a Book Club Far Away, Once Upon a Sunset, The Key to Happily Ever After, which was a Target Diverse Book Club pick, The Holiday Switch, and the Heart Resort and Journey to the Heart series. She and her books have been featured in The Today Show, Shondaland, Real Simple Magazine, The Asian Journal and more!

Connect:

Facebook

Elle Cruz - https://www.facebook.com/ElleCruzAuthor

Maan Gabriel – https://www.facebook.com/MaanGabrielAuthor

Maida Malby – https://www.facebook.com/carpediemchroniclesbymaidamalby

Mia Hopkins – https://www.facebook.com/miahopkinsxoxo

Sarah Smith – https://www.facebook.com/authorsarahs

Tif Marcelo - https://www.facebook.com/TifMarcelo

Instagram:

Elle Cruz – https://www.instagram.com/ellecruzauthor

Maan Gabriel – https://www.instagram.com/maan_gabriel

Maida Malby – https://www.instagram.com/carpediemchronicles

Mia Hopkins – https://www.instagram.com/miahopkinsxoxo

Sarah Smith – https://www.instagram.com/authorsarahs

Tif Marcelo - https://www.instagram.com/tifmarcelo

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Spotlight: The Unsolved Case of The Secret Christmas Baby by Hannah Byron

Pub Date 06 Dec 2022
Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

A Victorian Cozy Mystery (The Mrs Imogene Lynch Series Book 1)

A presumed dead baby who's just turned fifty, a grieving widow on a mission, a female haberdasher hiding a scandalous secret

The Cotswolds, England, December 1895

Fifty-year-old Imogene Lynch has recently moved to the tight-knit community of Dartmond after her husband passed away.

In the decades of her husband's job as chief constable of the neighboring Landdulton, the childless Imogene often assisted him in solving seemingly unsolvable crimes. On his deathbed Thaddeus Lynch has one last request to his wife: solve the secret Christmas baby's mystery.

Overcome by grief, but with the promise as a stamp on her heart, Imogene sets out in her roundabout way to unearth Sir Finley Lowther's mysterious origins. The first trace leads to Miss Eloise Platt, a well-respected Dartmond shopkeeper.

But when a baby's skull is dredged up from the bottom of Tiverstock Lake and Miss Eloise confesses to the murder, Mrs Imogene Lynch faces a stalemate. While the Dartmonders squabble over Miss Platt's fate, the widow-turned-detective worries she'll never fulfil her promise.

To break through her impasse, she pays a visit to the elderly Lady Lowther in Ridgeview Asylum with far-reaching consequences. For Imogene, the mystery is now solved, but getting Miss Platt to tell the truth is another matter.

With her characteristic quirky style, Mrs Lynch confides in the most unlikely candidate in her arsenal, her landlord, Mr Richard Hopewell. If the mute bookkeeper can shed light on what he witnessed on that fateful Christmas Day in 1845, she has the ally she needs to confront Miss Platt.

After fifty-one years, Constable Thaddeus Lynch's brown file on the Secret Christmas Baby can be closed for good. With Finley's adoption mystery solved and Miss Platt redeemed, all Dartmond joins in the merry 1896 Christmas celebrations.

This first book in the Victorian Cozy Mystery Series introduces Mrs Imogene Lynch, a willy-nilly detective who talks too much and eats too little.

Excerpt

“Now stop whining, Gertie, and just walk slowly down the stairs. Jasper isn’t even 2 stone. You carry heavier sacks of potatoes up the stairs.”

“But I carry the teddies up the stairs, Ma’am, not down. The dog is heavier than a three-year-old babber.” 

A three-year-old baby? Have you ever heard of such an exaggeration? One day soon, that maid’s going to do me in. She shuffles down the stairs so slowly, I’m almost losing my balance, and mind you, these stairs are as narrow as a rabbit hole.

“Just hold him steady, will you, or you’ll scare him, and you know what happens then!”

But it’s too late. Jasper whimpers once, and the damage is done.

“Ma’am, he’s wee-weeing all over me dress.”

“Poor darling Jasper, we’ll sort you out downstairs. Don’t squeeze him so tight, Gertie, I told you a dozen times before. It frightens him. And keep moving now. You can change your dress in a minute.”  

Dear Lord in Heaven, what is it with this maid? I can’t go through this every time with her and the dog.

When we finally land in one piece on the mat in the tight hallway near the glass-panelled front door, she puts poor Jasper on all fours. He looks up at me with those large, guilt-ridden eyes, but the stricken soul can’t help this. Enough is enough. 

“It’s all right, Jasper dear. Gertie, I’ll ask if Neil Fritter wants to earn a little extra pocket money and carry Jasper up and down, all right? We can’t have you change dresses three times a day.”

“That’s gurt lush, Ma’am.”

“Nice of me? Well, it’s all right, Gertie. Now change and wash that dress. I’ll pop into Donald’s fish shop on my way back and see if Neil is available.” 

“And I’m sorry for the mess, Ma’am.”

Don’t think that I miss the flicker of hope in Gertie’s grey eyes. Yes, Neil Fritter is a bit of a looker, so she won’t mind seeing him upstairs. I’ll make sure he delivers Jasper at my front door and doesn’t come in. I’m not against romancing, but I’ll not encourage it either in un-betrothed people. That’s not my style.

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About the Author

“Ever since I could hold a pen, I’ve written stories and poems, and I’ll write till my dying day.”

Historical fiction author Hannah Byron's crib stood near the Seine in Paris, but she was raised in the south of Holland by Anglo-Dutch parents. In her bestselling WW2 historical fiction series, The Resistance Girl Series, Hannah's heroines also traipse from one European country to the next, very much like their creator.

Now a retired university lecturer and translator, the European traveler and avid researcher is about to cross a new border and settle down south of Dublin.

What started as curiosity about her family's connection to D-Day, evolved into an out-of-controlish study into WW2 history. To blame, or thank, must be Uncle Tom Naylor. If he'd not landed on the beaches of Normandy and help liberate Holland, her British mother would never have met her Dutch Dad after the war.

Strong women are at the core of her clean and wholesome romance novels. Every book is a tribute to the generations who started the women’s lib movement, got dirty in overalls, flew planes, and did intelligence work. Today’s girl bosses can but stand on the shoulders of these amazons.

Side-by-side with their male counterparts, Byron’s heroines fight for freedom, equality and… love.

In December 2022, Byron will launch her first Historical Mysteries. The Mrs Imogene Lynch Series stars the kind but opinionated Victorian widow of Constable Thaddeus Lynch.

Connect:

https://www.hannahbyron.com/

https://www.instagram.com/authorhannahbyron/

https://www.facebook.com/authorhannahbyron

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/hannah-byron

https://twitter.com/HannahByron8

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20653723.Hannah_Byron

Spotlight: Country Snow and Mistletoe by Anne Carrole

A Wyoming Romance Novel Book 1

Genre: Contemporary Holiday Romance 

To risk or not risk: that is the question? A second-chance, enemies-to-lovers novel.

Career-minded Lexi Russell seeks a calm, predictable life that doesn’t require taking chances. But coming home to Wyoming for Thanksgiving, she finds out her carefully orchestrated life has imploded. Her “perfect” boyfriend has been cheating on her, her lucrative job has been eliminated, and the family ranch is on the chopping block. In addition, the teenage boy who broke her heart one summer a decade ago has turned into a handsome cowboy who’s planning on buying her family’s ranch with a low ball offer and her parents’ blessing. She’s got to figure out a way to help her parents avoid a serious mistake, find a new job, and stop her growing attraction to the cowboy who dumped her. With Christmas on the horizon, things take an unexpected turn that will force her to decide whether love is worth the risk. 

Excerpt

What had been the worst few days of her life grew exponentially worse as Lexi stared across the table at Cort McClane in the flesh. It had been years since she’d seen him. Ten years and three months, in fact.

Unfortunately, he looked better than she remembered. 

If only he’d gotten a paunch belly and gone bald. But no. He looked trim and fit and had gained some impressive muscle, as revealed by the rolled-up sleeves of his plaid flannel shirt. His hair was the same rich coffee color, and there was plenty of it, with a lock falling over his forehead. His blue eyes seemed bluer against tanned and weathered skin. And then there was that mouth of his, lit up in a smile as he stared back at her.

Like it was yesterday, she could remember his lips caressing hers as he taught her about kissing. French kissing, to be exact. Her sixteen-year-old self had been in love with him. She hadn’t had much judgment at sixteen, and, apparently, at twenty-six, it hadn’t gotten any better, at least where men were concerned.

“You must remember Cort from that summer he was here,” her mother said. “You taught him how to ride, if I recall.”

Lexi forced a smile. “Surprised to see you, Cort.” That was an understatement.

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About the Author

Anne Carrole is an award-winning author of contemporary and historical western romances. Raised on a farm with horses, dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, and whatever other animals she could convince her parents to shelter, she’s married to her own sweet-talking hero and the proud mother of a twenty-something cowgirl. Besides Country Snow and Mistletoe, you can also enjoy her popular Hearts of Wyoming contemporary series where love gets a second chance. Visit her website at https://www.annecarrole.com

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

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Spotlight: Copper Waters by Marlene M. Bell

(Annalisse, #4)
Publication date: December 5th 2022
Genres: Adult, Crime, Mystery

A rural New Zealand vacation turns poisonous.

Antiquities expert Annalisse Drury and tycoon Alec Zavos are at an impasse in their relationship when Alec refuses to clear up a paternity issue with an ex-lover.

Frustrated with his avoidance when their future is at stake, Annalisse accepts an invitation from an acquaintance to fly to New Zealand—hoping to escape the recent turbulence in her life.

But even Annalisse’s cottage idyll on the family sheep farm isn’t immune to intrigue.

Alec sends a mutual friend and detective, Bill Drake, to follow her, and a local resident who accompanies them from the Christchurch airport dies mysteriously soon after. A second violent death finds Annalisse and Bill at odds with the official investigations.

The local police want to close both cases as quickly as possible—without unearthing the town’s dirty secrets.

As she and Bill pursue their own leads at serious cost, the dual mysteries force Annalisse to question everything she thought she knew about family ties, politics, and the art of small-town betrayal.

Excerpt

“Nothing’s sinking in.” I pass the note to Alec and prepare myself. “Would you mind reading it aloud?”

“She and Ethan traveled together.” He gazes at me.

“Okay, we’d considered that.”

“Kate has business to conclude in New Zealand before she returns to New York. She asks me not to mention this to you until she arrives in the States but didn’t give a reason. Kate says she’ll meet you in person when she’s ready.”

“Seriously? Where does she plan to live? With me in Greenwich? The Goshen farm could be sold by now. Does she mention Jeremy finding her another place?”

Alec scans the page randomly. “No, she didn’t.”

I scratch my scalp and shake my head. “Then my sheep station trip to New Zealand is perfect timing. I have to leave now and see if I can catch her before she skips out. Ethan must know where Kate is. If it’s all the same, we’ll hang on to the tickets for our April trip, and I’ll buy my own way for this flight.” Tugging at my sweatshirt with clammy hands, I take the note from Alec and sail it into the flames, watching paper crinkle and burn on the log.

He steps forward, his chiseled profile gawking at the fire in disbelief.

“Were you ever going to tell me about Kate’s message?” A sob chokes my windpipe. “If it weren’t for Ethan’s invite, I doubt that we’d be talking about Kate.”

“Babe, I thought by staying neutral…” He twists his lips and looks at his shoes. “Seeing your reaction now; it was a mistake not to tell you.”

“That totally blows.” I ball my hands into fists. “More like you were afraid that I’d run down there to find her.” I’m mad enough to send smoke signals, so I take slower, calming breaths.

“If I’d told you… Yeah, I worried you’d run off. The ordeal in Italy, then Peter Gregory terrorizing you, and Helga has had barely enough time to settle around here. Your safety doesn’t include encouraging you to hop on a plane to another country so soon after a trauma like that. Waiting for Kate’s return felt right to me. At some point, I hope you’ll see things from my side. Kate put me in the middle, but it’s you I worry about.”

Willing myself to relax, I take his hand to get him to focus on me instead of the floor. “I know that.”

Peter Gregory, an old coworker from my past job at another gallery, is responsible for a young woman’s murder in Lecce, near the Mediterranean Sea on Italy’s eastern shore. Alec and I went to Southern Italy for a working vacation that spun us into solving more than one homicide in order for Alec to sell his dad’s Signorile Corporation, a sports car company.

“After a shower, I’ll give your mom a call from the car on the way home. I might have trouble getting a flight out on the spur of the moment, but if I do, I hope you’ll help me.”

“Anna, we should discuss this.” He catches my wrist. “I’d like to go along. Say the word, and I’m on that plane with you. Allow what’s happened with Kate to simmer. You might feel differently in the morning.”

Grasping Kate’s locket beneath my shirt, I slide the chain over my head and cup Alec’s hand, dropping the necklace there.

“Hold on to my locket while I’m gone. It’s the most precious thing I own. That way, you’ll know I’m coming back to you.” On my tiptoes, our salty kiss calls a loneliness— In a flash, two people are about to have a hemisphere drifting between them from outside influences that want to manipulate us. “Gen will be here to see Noah in a few hours, and you have him until Sunday. Let me go, Alec, and please wait for me at Brookehaven. I have to make this trip by myself. If there’s the slightest chance that Kate’s with Ethan or he knows where she is, I have to go. I’ve already lost precious time.” I start for the drawing room doors and remember something left undone. “Oh, and sorry for the sticky mess in your stable office.”

In a dead run, I’m biting a quivering lip. On the way to Alec’s bedroom suite, I send Chase a text to hold Ethan’s box and note for me at the gallery. True to form, Kate shoves us all out of our comfort zones, where I’m certain to find a disaster waiting for me to book a ticket to New Zealand in a mad rush.

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About the Author

Marlene M. Bell is an award-winning writer and acclaimed artist as well as a photographer. Her sheep landscapes grace the covers of Sheep!, The Shepherd, Ranch & Rural Living and Sheep Industry News, to name a few.

Her catalog Ewephoric began in 1985 out of her desire to locate personalized sheep stationery. She rarely found sheep products through catalogs and set out to design them herself. Ewephoric gifts may be ordered online or request a catalog at TexasSheep.com.

Marlene and her husband, Gregg reside in beautiful East Texas on a wooded ranch with their dreadfully spoiled horned Dorset sheep, a large Maremma guard dog named, Tia, along with Hollywood, Leo and Squeaks, the cats that believe they rule the household—and do.

Connect:

https://twitter.com/ewephoric

https://www.marlenembell.com/

https://www.instagram.com/marlenemysteries/

https://www.facebook.com/marlenembell

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17642396.Marlene_M_Bell

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Spotlight: Confessions of a Fangirl by Kirsten S. Blacketer

(Her Confessions, #1)
Publication date: December 7th 2021
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

Life is good. I have a plush job, supportive friends, and a close-knit family. When the new hottie at the office asks me out on a date, I think I just won the jackpot.

Until movie night with the girls leads me down a dark rabbit hole. Who is he? An innocent Google search about a handsome actor has my imagination spinning. Now I’m drowning, and I don’t want salvation. I want him.

But I already have the perfect man. This obsession might just ruin my life.

Excerpt

“Why don’t you turn on the TV? I have a movie in for us to watch.” He winks. “I think you’ll enjoy it.”

I narrow my gaze. “Is it inappropriate?”

Shaun’s eyes widen. “What would give you the impression I would dare cross that line? We’ve only known each other for two weeks.”

“True.”

“Normally I let crazy out of the bottle after the third date, never before then.”

I spin around to face him. “I knew it.”

He doubles over the sink laughing. “Just turn on the TV, Jen.”

When I turn it on, a familiar song comes through the speakers. I grin like an idiot when I see the familiar logo. “Source of Destiny,” I mutter under my breath.

“Good thing you’re a Space Vendetta fan, huh?” He dries his hands and joins me.

My face heats. “Actually, I’m a newbie to the whole thing. We watched it the other weekend for movie night. It was the first time I’d ever heard of the series.”

“Oh, so you had your SVS cherry popped recently, huh?” Shaun sits on the couch next to me and takes the remote from my hand.

“I guess you could say that.” I bite my tongue knowing he doesn’t mean anything by the comment, but it leaves me a bit breathless.

“I guess it’s not your typical movie night choice then.”

“No. One of the guys in the mailroom suggested it when he heard Lily and me discussing ideas in the break room.”

“Lily.” Shaun thinks for a moment. “Oh yes, the classic vintage aficionado.” He nods sagely. “She always looks stunning. It’s a great style on her.”

“Right?” I push away the twist of jealousy. “I envy her style. She looks so put together.”

“You do too.” He grabs my hand and laces his fingers with mine. “It’s what I noticed first about you.”

There goes the damn rollercoaster again. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He squeezes my hand.

I turn my head away to hide the flaming blush I know has consumed my face. My gaze rests on the TV and the logo on the screen.

“Shall we start the movie?”

“Sure.” He presses play and pulls me against him, draping his arm around my shoulder.

We’ve both seen the film before, but within moments we’re both drawn into the story on the screen. My body tenses in anticipation. I know what’s coming, and I brace myself for it.

Captain Korbin Ransom appears on the screen on queue. An ache settles in my chest. Guiltily, I glance at Shaun, who’s entranced by the film. My gaze drifts back to the movie.

This inexplainable gravity draws me into the story. A closeup of the villain’s profile has my heart racing. My fingers dig into Shaun’s thigh. He shifts and pulls me closer.

What the hell is wrong with me? My second date and I’m swooning over a man on the screen when I should be all over the warm, solid man beside me. He made me dinner. Made me feel special. Hell, he made me tiramisu!

As the movie continues, I hold my breath for the moments Korbin Ransom appears in all his leather-clad wonder. The character’s brooding darkness and sexy swagger have me on the edge of my seat. I’m drawn to this villain in ways I can’t comprehend.

I like good men. Honest men. Men who make me dinner and treat me like a queen. But deep in the dark recesses of my mind, my imagination flirts with something I’ve never allowed into the light. I’m aroused and ashamed. I shove these fantasies of a tempting villain aside and focus on enjoying this moment with Shaun, a good man of flesh and blood.

When the credits roll, I slowly shift from beneath his arm and stretch. “That movie gets better every time I see it. I mean, it’s like I catch details I missed before.”

“Yeah, happens to me too.” He stretches his arm out and grabs my wrist, pulling me back against him.

I’m breathless, caught in the haze of his blue eyes. My heart’s racing.

“Jen...am I going too fast for you?” There’s hunger in their depths.

I swallow. “No.”

“If I ever make you uncomfortable, tell me.” A soft smile curves his lips. “I like you.”

“I like you too.” My fingers brush his cheek. I lean in and kiss him.

His soft lips part beneath mine and he pulls me closer. “You can stay tonight if you want,” he whispers between passionate kisses.

“As much as I would love to take you up on that.” I sigh against his lips. “I can’t.”

He nods. “I understand. Sleeping together on a second date feels like we’re going at hyperspeed.”

I chuckle at the Space Vendetta reference. “Yeah, it does.”

“I’ll leave it up to you.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “When you’re ready, let me know.”

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About the Author

Kirsten Blacketer writes the stories she's dying to read. She likes mystery and intrigue, handsome heroes, sassy heroines, and a chance to break the rules. She lives for sexual tension and loves kissing scenes. There's no way she can write in just one era, so don't be surprised if you see her jumping from medieval Scotland to prohibition on the Mississippi River to late Victorian London then onto contemporary Brooklyn. She follows wherever the muse leads her.

The KSB Guarantee: A Steamy Getaway and Always a HEA!

Connect:

https://kirstensblacketer.com/

https://twitter.com/kirblacketer

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kirsten-s-blacketer

https://www.instagram.com/kirblackship/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7223054.Kirsten_S_Blacketer

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Cover Reveal: Near Miss by C.S. Smith

Publication date: January 10th 2023
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

He’s hostage to his past. Betrayal and death haunt former British Special Air Service captain Lachlan Mackay after a disastrous mission in the mountains of Afghanistan ends his military career. Now a civilian, his job overseeing security teams in Kabul brings the opportunity to topple a powerful warlord, avenge the dead, and free himself from the crushing guilt of trusting the wrong woman. However, his plans for revenge get derailed when someone from his past targets his beautiful new American colleague.

She has a secret that could destroy him. Sophia Russo wants to make a difference in the lives of the Afghan people. As the new director of Legislative Affairs at Landry Associates International, her job is to lobby Congress to support her company’s development projects in the war-torn country. But when her best friend’s father, a retired four-star admiral, tells her someone may be trafficking weapons to a warlord, she agrees to spy on the prime suspect, LAI’s head of Global Security. Lachlan Mackay is dangerously sexy and full of secrets, but after getting to know the Hot Scot, her heart refuses to believe he’s a criminal.

The past won’t stay dead. When Sophia is caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse between Lachlan and an unknown enemy, she teams up with him to help prove his innocence. The tables are turned when their hunt for the truth makes them the hunted.

To save Lachlan, Sophia may have to betray him, and Lachlan is forced to do the one thing he swore he’d never do again.

Trust a woman with his life.

Buy on Amazon | Bookshop.org

About the Author

C.S. Smith writes steamy romantic suspense and paranormal romance featuring current and former special operations soldiers. She admits to having a thing for alpha males. The bigger and badder they are, the harder they fall!

While earning a Master's in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, she worked in and around the Pentagon surrounded by good-looking men in uniform, including the one she eventually married.

Her career as a writer took off in 2018 when her youngest child learned to drive and her days of micromanaging a family of five were coming to an end. Now she manages her husband of over thirty years and the family rescue dog - a supposed Golden Retriever that DNA tests revealed is really a lab, chow, boxer mix.

Her debut award-winning romantic suspense series, Dìleas Security Agency, focuses on three former elite special operators in a brotherhood forged by betrayal, blood, and death. If you enjoy hot alpha men and feisty women wrapped up in storylines full of danger and intrigue, be sure to look for Near Miss (Book 1), Missing in Action (Book 2), and Missed Opportunity (Book 3), coming in 2023.

Connect:

https://www.cssmithauthor.com/

https://www.pinterest.ca/CSSmithauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/CSSmithAuthor19/

https://www.instagram.com/c.s.smithauthor/