Spotlight: Bid on Love by Sharon C. Cooper

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Single dad, Benjamin Jenkins Jr. learned the hard way that women can’t be trusted. But the moment Mahogany Rowsey hits his radar, he’s captivated and unable to resist her magnetic pull.

Mahogany can spot a player a mile away, and she’s managed to dodge every single one… until Ben. He charms her into a one-night fling that leaves her panting for more. But it won’t happen again. She lives in Chicago. He lives in Cincinnati. Still, that doesn’t stop her from wanting what she can’t have.

But when Ben shows up to bid on a project Mahogany is overseeing, what began as one night of passion becomes so much more. Can these two get on the same page long enough to turn one night into forever?

*All books in this series can be read as a standalone. 

Excerpt

“Once you’re the VP, you’ll report to someone else. Not me. Mahogany, all I want is a chance to show you how good we can be together.”

Considering how good-looking he was, it was a wonder that she wasn’t at least attracted to Odin physically. Mixed race, black and white, his skin tone was olive with red undertones that made his hazel eyes pop. He usually had a five o’clock shadow on his cheeks and his mustache and goatee were always perfectly trimmed. 

He reminded her of the actor Daniel Sunjata with his good looks and similar build. He was such a nice, easy-going guy. Yet, Mahogany felt no inkling of sexual attraction. No butterflies taking flight in her stomach. Not even weakness in her knees. She felt nothing.

A part of her felt guilty about that, but she had to stay true to what she wanted in a mate. 

“Odin, I am truly flattered, but—”

“Don’t say no. Take some time to think about it. All I’m asking is for a chance. If you get to know me outside of work, I’m sure you’ll see how compatible we are.”

She started to step back, but he reached for her hand. His touch was gentle when he brought it up to his lips and kissed the back of her fingers.

His mouth on her skin was having the opposite effect of what he was probably going for. Instead of enjoying the feel of his lips on her hand, it felt as if ants were scurrying up her arm. She yanked her hand out of his grasp.

He smiled. “You felt it too,” he said, his baritone going even lower and his eyes glimmering with desire. “There is something between us. I feel it, and it’s clear you feel it too. Why don’t—”

“Am I interrupting?” 

Mahogany startled at the deep voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. She glanced to her right and her breath caught. Ben.

Without another thought, she hurried to him and almost knocked him off-balance when she threw her arms around his neck. She covered his mouth with hers before he could say a word. 

Ben stiffened, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he stopped breathing. But as her lips moved over his, before long, he had taken over the impromptu kiss. Their tongues tangled while his strong arms slid around her waist, and he pulled her snug against him. As he loved on her mouth the way he had three months ago, heat surged through her veins. 

Every nerve in her body sparked to life. Longing charged through her with each lap of his tongue, and her body burned with need.

It was as if no time had passed between them. Everything she felt that night came rushing back. Desire. Passion. Yearning. 

She couldn’t believe he was there, and like before, her body responded to him immediately. She missed him more than she cared to admit, and if given the chance, she’d…

A throat cleared and Mahogany startled, then stiffened. She had temporarily forgotten Odin was in the room.

Ben lifted his mouth from hers but didn’t move as he searched her eyes. Suddenly, his eyebrows drew into a frown. Though he didn’t speak, his troubled expression said it all… What the heck is going on? 

Oh, crap. What have I done? 

***

Copyright © 2023 Sharon C. Cooper

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About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper loves anything involving romance with a happily-ever-after, whether in books, movies, or real life. She writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and dabbles in romantic comedy. She enjoys rainy days, carpet picnics, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sharon’s stories have won numerous awards over the years, and when she isn’t writing, she’s hanging out with her amazing husband, doing volunteer work, or reading a good book (a romance of course). To read more about Sharon and her novels, visit www.sharoncooper.net

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Spotlight: House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky

City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. As their legions scour the world of superstition with the bright flame of reason, so they deliver a mountain of ragged, holed and scorched flesh to the field hospital tents just behind the frontline.

Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit.

Led by 'the Butcher', an ogre of a man who's a dab hand with a bone-saw and an alchemical tincture, the unit's motley crew of conscripts, healers and orderlies are no strangers to the horrors of war. Their's is an unspeakable trade: elbow-deep in gore they have a first-hand view of the suffering caused by flesh-rending monsters, arcane magical weaponry and embittered enemy soldiers.

Entrusted – for now – with saving lives deemed otherwise un-saveable, the field hospital's crew face a precarious existence. Their work with unapproved magic, necromancy, demonology and Yansic's thoroughly illicit Gods could lead to the unit being disbanded, arrested or worse.

Beset by enemies within and without, the last thing anyone needs is a miracle…

Excerpt

It is a vision of hell. 

The air is made of screaming. Like a picture where the gap between two objects is revealed, after a squint, to be just more of the same, here the gap between throat-stripping shrieks is just less-insistent sounds of men and women in agony. A hierarchy of torment so constant and yet so varied it becomes something close to a choir. 

Here, then, is the choirmaster. A great weight of a man who nonetheless passes through the bloody clutter of the space with an appalling deftness. Like the thing in your dream, that cannot possibly follow you into the small spaces, and yet does so in defiance of reason. His bulk is gravity, demanding the attention of everything around him. It’s a wonder the rivulets of spilled blood don’t orbit him in a wheeling astronomy of gore. 

Behind him his minions, his attendant devils, are hard at work. Time enough for them when you’ve escaped the pull of this man, this bloody-handed emperor, even now stomping to look over the new arrivals thrown to his mercy.

His face is a thing of parts. It can clench like a fist, open like a flower. In other moments, with the rigour of his profession lifted from him, it’s a good face. A friendly thing to see. A broad smile, such as might be used to persuade you to open your door to him at night. His moustache, which right now is crusted with red, can make him seem clownish and harmless. The mass of him, which can drive a cleaver through a limb or give bite to the teeth of a saw, becomes the ungainly comedy of a dancing bear. When he wants it to. Right now, though, he’s working. The worst kind of torturer, who preys only on those already in agony. No fit and healthy victims come to his dungeon to be broken. He takes the leavings, and his people make them squeal. 

Spilling into his tent now: a flurry of men and women, some in full uniform, others stripped to their shirtsleeves. They are whole as yet. They aren’t his. And those that are his, well, their uniforms are already ragged, holed, sodden, scorched. The fit set down the stretchers of the infirm and retreat. Nobody wants to spend time in the Butcher’s company when he’s working. Most especially not the howling victims set at his feet. 

One figure remains. Uniform jacket open, slovenly, hanging improbably from her shoulders as though it’ll slough off any moment, save it never does. She’s been outside with the bearers, taking details, and she bends to the Butcher’s ear. 

“Taking the wall. Caught a bonecutter, then counterattack.” The words almost stripped of their regular meaning, a code between her and the Butcher to give him context. 

He casts a look over the array of the agonised, a workman inspecting the damage, a clerk, today’s agenda for the meeting. Nearest to him a man whimpers with his leg laid open. Sword-stroke. Next, the woman without a hand, screaming at the stump. Then three silent ones. He sees where their uniforms are shredded, the ripped edges presented outwards where the shards of shattered bone erupted from within. Then the next, and the next. The pucker-and-scorch of baton-shot. The man whose head is laid open so that the jigsaw of his skull is present for any budding puzzlesmith to piece together. The woman – the loudest screamer in the place, whose leg was splinted by some cack-handed amateur who doesn’t understand how bones go. 

The Butcher works his first magic. The silent man whose ribs were shattered on one side can still be saved for future torments. Blunt-fingered hands signal and that stretcher is hauled deeper into hell where the devils can get to work with saw and tongs. The woman with the shattered arm, she can be saved. She goes to the foreigner with the shimmer skin, staring up with eyes pulled so taut it’s a wonder her lids will ever close again. The gutshot man can be saved. He’s placed in the far corner for a scouring and a working over, back where a weird old man plays a weird old pipe, skirling and squalling on it as though mocking the screams of the afflicted. It’s all a part of the service. A necessary component of this precise and exacting hell the Butcher built. 

Those are the highest priority, where a little delay means the difference between live victim and corpse. Now it’s time for the Butcher’s second magic. His apron is not that of a friendly family butcher. There are twenty pockets in the leather, each with a flap to keep the worst of the ambient weather out, though most have an inch of red at the bottom of them by now. He goes down the line of the brutalised, his blunt fingers finding phials and bottles by long habit, feeling for the nicks he cuts in the corks, to tell him concentrations and active ingredients. A personal love-language of agony and alchemy. The woman without a hand has had the stump cauterised – not battlefield medicine but the side effects of a point-blank baton discharge. She’ll keep. He forces the lip of a glass phial to her lips. She chokes, swallows. Her screams fall inwards until their scrabbling fingertips can’t reach her lips any more and she’s silent. He goes down the line, a bespoke service for each, this philtre or that, based on wound, on whim, on the individual predilections of his busy hands that seem to act on their own recognizance. Sometimes he salts the wounds with powder, stuff that burns and eats away necrotized flesh, undoes the work of energies and corruption or at least staves it off for long enough.

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About the Author

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire before heading off to Reading to study psychology and zoology. For reasons unclear even to himself he subsequently ended up in law and has worked as a legal executive in both Reading and Leeds, where he now lives. Married, he is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor, has trained in stage-fighting, and keeps no exotic or dangerous pets of any kind, possibly excepting his son. Catch up with Adrian at www.shadowsoftheapt.com for further information about both himself and the insect-kinden, together with bonus material including short stories and artwork.

Spotlight: When We Were Enemies by Emily Bleeker

Two women, generations apart, in the spotlight. A powerful novel about family secrets, devastating choices, and hope for the future.

Camera-shy Elise Branson is different from the other women in her matriline. Her mother is an award-winning actress. Her late grandmother, Vivian Snow, is a beloved Hollywood icon. But when Elise’s upcoming wedding coincides with a documentary being made about Vivian, Elise can’t escape the camera’s gaze. And even in death, neither can her grandmother.

It’s 1943 when Vivian, a small-town Indiana girl, lends her home front support to the war effort. As a translator in the nearby Italian POW camp, she’s invaluable. As a celebrated singer for the USO, she lifts men’s spirits and falls in love with a soldier. But behind this all-American love story is a shocking secret—one vital to keep buried if Vivian is to achieve the fame and fortune, she covets.

For Elise and Vivian, what’s hidden—and what’s exposed—threatens to unravel their lives. The heart-wrenching choices they must make will change them both forever.

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About the Author

Emily Bleeker is the bestselling author of six novels. Combined, her books have reached more than two million readers. She is a two-time Whitney Award finalist as well as being on the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. 

Emily lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with her husband, their kids, and her kitten-muse, Hazel. Along with writing and being a mom, she performs with a local improv troupe, sings karaoke like no one is watching, and embraces her newfound addiction to running. Connect with her or request virtual visit with your book club at www.emilybleeker.com.

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Official Website: EmilyBleeker.com
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Spotlight: Once Persuaded, Twice Shy: A Modern Reimagining of Persuasion by Melodie Edwards

This modern reimagining of Persuasion is full of witty banter, romantic angst, and compelling characters as it captures the heart of the classic Jane Austen novel.

When Anne Elliott broke up with Ben Wentworth, it seemed like the right thing to do . . . but now, eight years later, she’s not so sure.

In her scenic hometown of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Anne is comfortable focusing on her successful career: filling her late mother’s shoes as town councilor and executive director of her theater company. She certainly keeps busy as the all-around wrangler of eccentric locals, self-centered family members, elaborate festivals, and the occasional attacking goose. But the more she tries to convince herself that her life is fine as is, the more it all feels like a show—and not nearly as good as the ones put on by her theater company. She’s the always responsible Anne, always taken for granted and cleaning up after other people, and the memories of happier times with Ben Wentworth still haunt her.

So when the nearby Kellynch Winery is bought by Ben’s aunt and uncle, Anne’s world is set ablaze as her old flame crashes back into her life—and it’s clear he hasn’t forgiven her for breaking his heart. A joint project between the winery and Anne’s theater forces both Ben and Anne to confront their complicated history, and as they spend more time together, Anne can’t help but wonder if there might be hope for their future after all.

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About the Author

Melodie Edwards is the author of Jane & Edward (Mar. 21, 2023) and Once Persuaded, Twice Shy (Feb. 27, 2024). She has a BA in English literature from the University of Toronto, a Master’s degree in communications from McMaster University and Syracuse University and studied comedy writing at the Second City Training Centre.

Her writing has been featured in Writer’s Digest, G160 Theatre Festival, the Austin Film Festival Playwright Competition, and the Hart House Drama Festival.

Connect:

Official Website: MelodieEdwards.com
Instagram: @melodiewritesedwards
X (Formerly Twitter): @melodie_edward

Cover Reveal: Walking in Circles by Amy Matayo

“When you’ve been hurt the worst by the one who should love you most, trusting anyone is a dangerous game.”

Emma Lee was four the first time her dad hit her, eight when he left without a word, and nine by the time she’d developed a serious case of Male Trust Issues. So, when her mom moves her from their beloved California city to a small South Carolina town, the last person she wants to get to know is her elderly male neighbor. But the man won’t stop talking to her. And it isn’t like she can avoid him. She passes his house twice a day on her walk to and from school.

Old Will knows a fractured soul when he sees one, and his young new neighbor is certainly that. Emma wears a cautious demeanor like an old sweater, and it tugs at his heartstrings. His late wife would have his hide if he didn’t welcome the girl onto their front porch and treat her like one of their own. And if his grandson Shane happened to come by and meet her…well, that wouldn’t be his fault, would it?

Shane Michaels is the school jock, prom king, all-around popular kid, and miserable. He’s already lost so much in his eighteen years, more than his classmates could ever understand. And he is lonely. So, when Emma moves into the house next to Old Will, Shane makes it his mission to meet her. He invites her on a walk. He joins her on Old Will’s front porch. He asks her to dinner and to prom and eventually spills the secret he’s been keeping for years, the secret only his parents and Old Will know about.

That is, until a tragic accident brings everything into the open and throws their newly formed bond into chaos. A bond Emma hadn’t seen coming until she’d already learned to depend on it. But isn’t that how life works?

Sometimes learning to trust people is only a matter of meeting the right ones. 

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Meet Amy Matayo

Amy Matayo is an award winning author of  The Wedding Game, Love Gone Wild, Sway, In Tune with Love, A Painted Summer, The End of the World, The Thirteenth Chance, The Whys Have It, Christmas at Gate 18, and the upcoming Lies We Tell Ourselves.

She graduated with barely passing grades from John Brown University with a degree in Journalism. But don’t feel sorry for her–she’s super proud of that degree and all the ways she hasn’t put it to good use.

She laughs often, cries easily, feels deeply, and loves hard. She lives in Arkansas with her husband and four kids and is always working on her next novel, whichever one that may be.

Connect with Amy Matayo

➜ Website:  https://amymatayo.com/

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/amymatayoauthor

➜ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amymatayo.author/

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Spotlight: Wings of Ink by Angelina J. Steffort

Genre: NA Fantasy Romance

Cover Designer: Fantastical Ink

Publication Date: Feb. 28th, 2024

The seductive and thrilling first book in the Wings of Ink epic romantic fantasy series from award-winning author Angelina J. Steffort.

Stuck in prison, pirate Wolayna Milevishja is waiting to be dealt her punishment—one worse than death, her captors promised when they closed the door of her cell over nine months ago.

Now that punishment has come to collect her.

Wolayna is taken to the mystical fairylands as this year’s bride for the Crow King, and that, even the humans in this world know, means there is no hope.

As Wolayna quarrels with her fate, frosty disdain melts into heart-stopping attraction, and she realizes that, maybe, King Myron, has just as little choice as she has. Something ancient and vengeful is at work in the Crow realm, and the intrigue at court is just the surface of the looming danger closing in on them.

Will Wolayna outsmart fate and find the freedom she’s owed, or will this new world of winged horror and surprising beauty be the death of her?

If you like witty, independent heroines and morally-grey, tormented heroes, you will devour this sizzling, addictive fantasy adventure.

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About the Author

"Chocolate fanatic, milk-foam enthusiast and huge friend of the southern sting-ray. Writing is an unexpected career-path for me."

Angelina J. Steffort is an Austrian novelist, best known for her Wings Trilogy, a young adult paranormal romance series about the impossible love between a girl and an angel. The bestselling Wings Trilogy has been ranked among calibers such as the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, and Lauren Kate’s Fallen, and has been top listed among angel books for teens by bloggers and readers. Her young adult fantasy series Shattered Kingdom is already being compared to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series by readers and fans.

Angelina has multiple educational backgrounds including engineering, business, music, and acting, and lives in Vienna, Austria with her husband and her son.

Connect:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/41XILSP

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16604778.Angelina_J_Steffort

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