Promo Post: Beautiful Little Fool by K.K. Hendin

Eighty seven billion dollars.

One dead New York business mogul.

No heirs.

No wives.

No relatives.

Eighty seven billion dollars.

Not hers yet.

He doesn’t deserve them.

He doesn’t know what to do with them.

She does.

She always has.

Eighty seven billion dollars.

He’s overwhelmed.

She’s prepared.

That will should have had her name.

Not his.

Eighty seven billion dollars.

His looks are a bonus.

Her looks are her weapon.

He’s fighting a losing battle against his heart.

He doesn’t know it yet.

Eighty seven billion dollars.

She gets everything she wants.

He’s what she wants.

Love has nothing to do with it.

To get to where you’re going, sometimes you need to step on a few people to get there.

Good thing her heels are sharp.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KK Hendin’s real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she’ll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate. She’s the author of the NA contemporaries HEART BREATHS and ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG.

THIS MUCH SPACE is the second book in her new series, TWELVE BEATS IN A BAR.

KK spends way too much time on Twitter (where she can be found as @kkhendin), and rambles on occasion over at www.kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com.

AUTHOR LINKS

Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads Author Page

ARC Review: The Young Elites by Marie Lu

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series 

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.


Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.
 
It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

PRE-ORDER ME! 

indieBound  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Amazon

Marie Freakin' Lu. I absolutely love her and her books. This lovely lady is a local author and quite an artist. I managed to get a copy of her upcoming book, The Young Elites, at this year's San Diego Comic Con. This book is full of fantasy, hate, love, grief, betrayal, death, darkness, throne climbing and character growth. Set in the country of Kenettra, the story centers around several characters and shifts between first person and third person. Adelina Amouteru is a scarred (literally) young sixteen year old girl who is among the thousands of people who came down with a blood fever (of unknown origins) that spread across Kenettra. 

On Marie's website there's a mini blurb about TYE that's basically summarizes the entire story in a nutshell, "The Young Elites (available everywhere Oct. 7, 2014) is the origin story of a villain. It is set in an alternate fantasy version of Renaissance Italy. After the equivalent of the Black Death sweeps through the world, a few survivors come out of the illness with supernatural powers. The main character, Adelina, is essentially the teenage girl version of Darth Vader or Magneto—the story chronicles her downfall into darkness."

Despite the fact that Adelina is the proposed "villian," I couldn't help, but feel only empathy and heartache for her. As a female, she has no power over herself, which goes along with the time period of misogyny and male dominance. Adding to the mix, her only surviving parent is an abusive, cruel, and self-serving monster. There were so many times where I wanted to throttle her father. Adelina wasn't the only one who came down with the fever in her family. Her younger sister did as well and  unlike, Adelina, Violetta recovered without a scar to mar her beautiful features. There is some jumping to and fro between flashbacks, but at the current moment, the blood fever has passed through Delia, Adelina's hometown, and some survivors are rumored to have developed powers. In an era where religion reigns supreme, this does not bode well for the survivors, also known as malfetto, abominations. For those who do not follow this line of thinking, the survivors are known as the young elites.

Ever since she has recovered from the blood fever, her father has done everything imaginable to Adelina to bring out any powers she might have received from the blood fever. After eavesdropping on her father's private conversation with a mysterious stranger, Adelina packs up her few belongings and runs away from home. She doesn't make it far, when her father catches up with her. There's a struggle and she snaps. All of the stress, anger, and hatred boils up inside her and her power is finally reveal and leaves her father dead.  At the risk of sounding bloodthirsty, I cheered at this! I was glad that he was her first kill. Despite her godly powers, Adelina has a mortal heart and the guilt from her father's death is her constant companion. 

Caught by the palace guards and sentenced to be burned at the stake. Here we are introduced to Teren Santoro, the leader of the Inquisition Axis. Officially he works for the king, but he also has his own motives and ambitions. He definitely plays a key role in Adelina's fall into darkness throughout the story and we'll definitely see more of him in the future. Things look bad for Adelina, but she is rescued by a band of young elites and spirited away. She may have escaped the clutches of Teren for now, but she might have traded one prison sentence for another. The Dagger Society, as they are called are comprised of young elites from all walks of life and social classes. Their leader is Enzo Valenciano, also known as The Reaper. Charming, but calculating. He's not someone you mess with. Just like Teren, his motives are many and he won't hestitate to kill Adeline if she doesn't help further his cause. Under the watchful eyes of the Dagger Society, Adeline begins to train in fighting and exploring the limits of her powers, or rather the lack of them. As Adelina's story unfolds and entwines with those of Teren and Enzo, we'll see how much one can take before giving in to the darkness within.

Without going into too much detail, the cast of the Dagger Society are solid individuals with their own backstories that  will hopefully be revealed in the second book. There are other major players besides Teren and Enzo, however they were only briefly touched upon. The plot twist near the end put me through an emotional wringer. I hope it isn't permanent and that it will be fixed in book two, but we shall see what Marie has planned. In a Q & A during a signing, Marie stated that Magento was her favorite and this book definitely reflects that. This was another great addition to Marie's resume and a definite addition to my bookshelf. A solid 5 star rating. You did well, Marie. Now hurry up and write book two already. :)

5 stars!!!!

About the Author

I write young adult novels, and have a special love for dystopian books. Ironically, I was born in 1984. Before becoming a full-time writer, I was an Art Director at a video game company. Now I shuffle around at home and talk to myself a lot. :)

I graduated from the University of Southern California in '06 and currently live in LA, where I spend my time stuck on the freeways.

Connect with Marie: Blog  |  Twitter  | Goodreads  | Facebook  |  Deviantart

Giveaway

Up for grabs is a hardback copy of The Young Elites. It isn't officially on sale until October 7th, but I'm giving a copy away once it the date arrives. The book will be sent to you separately from the miscellaneous swag pack and SIGNED San Diego Comic Con bookplate by Marie herself. This giveaway ends on the 30th of September and for residents of the USA only. 

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Also be sure to enter my other giveaway for a kindle paperwhite!   http://bit.ly/1s7r3dI

Release Day Blitz: Black Box by Cassia Leo

Add Black Box on Goodreads

♥ Three fateful encounters....

♥ Two heart-breaking tragedies....

♥ One last chance to get it right.

From New York Times best selling author Cassia Leo, comes an epic love
story about rewriting destiny. 

Over the course of five years, Mikki and Crush cross paths on three separate
occasions. Their first encounter changes Mikki's life forever, but their second
meeting leaves them both buried beneath the emotional wreckage of a violent
attack. Mikki is left with more questions and grief than she can handle, while
Crush is forced to forget the girl who saved his life.

Now nineteen years old, Mikki Gladstone has decided she's tired of the
mind-numbing meds. She books a flight to Los Angeles to end her life far away
from her loving, though often distant, family.

Twenty-one-year-old Crush has always channeled his blackest thoughts into his
music, but he's never had great aspirations. He decides to fly to Los Angeles
to record a demo of the only song he's never performed in public; a song he
wrote for a girl he doesn't even know: Black Box. He has no expectations of
fame and he's never felt like his life had any purpose... until he meets Mikki
in Terminal B.

When Mikki and Crush cross paths for the third time in Terminal B, neither has
any idea who the other person is; until they slowly piece together their
history and realize that fate has more in store for them than just another love
story.

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | iTunes US | iTunes UK | Kobo US/CA 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cassia Leo grew up in California and has lived in three different countries. She loves to travel and her dream is to
one day score a record deal based on her awesome shower singing skills. She is the author of the Shattered Hearts series (Relentless, Pieces of You, Bring Me Home, Abandon) and the Luke and Chase series.

Website | Facebook | Twitter 

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Release Day Blitz: Moon's Flower By Marie Hall

Moon's Flower (Kingdom Series, Book 6)

Once upon a time, long, long ago a flower fairy looked up to the sky and dared to fall in love with the Man in the Moon…

Jericho strode to the balustrade, gripping the gray stones with white knuckled intensity as he gazed downward through the canvas of darkness and pin bursts of stars, peering into the magical realm beneath him.

Moonglow lit his corner of the castle. Once, long ago, he’d been a shepherd riding the rugged and peaked plains of sheep country. Alive and normal. But everything changed the day he’d found her.

The beautifully stunning woman draped in a glowing gown of buttery gold.

He’d stopped in a sheltered grove to give his horse—Midnight—a chance to drink. That’s when he’d seen the blond haired goddess, she’d been dipping her toes in the pond. At the sight of her bare feet and the gown that had fitted her like second skin, he’d fallen immediately under her spell.

Her big, luminous tawny eyes had captivated him. The rosebud lips and high, slashing cheekbones. The slender column of her throat, every inch of her was built for seduction. Proper women of his day didn’t dress like her. Didn’t let the long length of their curls tumble down around the head and shoulders, or wear a diaphanous gown that hid nothing of the curves beneath.

If he’d been smart, he’d have known something wasn’t right about the woman in gold. But as was often the case with him back then, it’d merely taken the sight of a beautiful woman to make him forget every bit of common sense he’d ever possessed.

She’d opened her arms out to him and they’d slept together. He hadn’t known he’d be sealing his doom, hadn’t known that sleeping with the sun would burn… hadn’t known that things like fairy tales could actually exist.

Sighing, he peered into the endless expanse of sky, heart longing to see the bejeweled beauty of land.

Darkness, it belonged to him now. He could never walk the daylight hours. What Siria hadn’t told him when she’d taken him into her body was that she’d marked him, turned him into a man of myth and legend.

That every five hundred years a new man would be chosen. Jericho had gone from being a humble shepherd, to being the Man in the Moon. Locked away forever in this part of the castle. Only allowed to walk the land of Kingdom on the thirtieth day of the month, during the turning of the lunar cycle.

Only once a month could his feet touch land.

Other Books in the Series

Marie Hall is a USA Today Bestselling Author who loves books that make you think, or feel something. Preferably both. And while she's a total girly girl and loves glitter and rainbows, she's just as happy when she's writing about the dark underbelly of society. Well, if things like zombies, and vampires, and werewolves, and mermaids existed. (Although she has it on good authority that mermaids do in fact exist, because the internet told her so.)

She's married to the love of her life, a sexy beast of a caveman who likes to refer to himself as Big Hunk. She has two awesome kids, lives in Hawaii, loves cooking and occasionally has been known to crochet. She also really loves talking about herself in the third person.

If you want to see what new creations she's got up her sleeves check out her blog:

www.MarieHallWrites.blogspot.com or contact her personally at mariehallwrites@gmail.com

Cover Reveal: Shine by Dannika Dark

In the short span of a year, Silver has gone from becoming a Mage to discovering the truth about her unique genetics. Logan Cross went from her mortal enemy to her immortal lover, but a threat is fast approaching like an inevitable storm. Attacks are underway against the Mageri and one man is behind it—an elusive foe who is an unstoppable force. Nero is not Silver’s only concern as someone close to her is arrested for treason. In the midst of chaos, Silver discovers she cannot protect everyone from the wrath of fate, including her own Ghuardian. Justus finally opens his heart, but an unexpected turn of events could darken his soul forever. Secrets are revealed that will leave you reeling from one twist after the next. Would you sacrifice everything for love? Destiny has set sail and once she alters her course, no one’s life will ever be the same in this explosive conclusion to the Mageri Series.

Release Date: December 20, 2013

About the Author

This is the segment where you learn a little more about who I am, so here's what I can tell you:  I drink copious amounts of vitamin water placed precariously close to my laptop while writing. These are two healthy habits I have no intention of breaking. I'm a transplant living in the south, but I was born in the 70's to a military dad who moved us around the world.

When I'm not writing (which is all the time), I'm hunting down Indie music, watching movies, reading, eating Tex-Mex, discovering new ways to humiliate myself bowling, and burning up my laptop battery on the Internet. I have a relaxed, easy-going personality and don't like drama. I live with a cat who thinks she is a dog, or a goat (she eats plastic, so I'm not sure which).

Throughout my life, I've had insomnia. Counting sheep never worked and eventually I would imagine those sheep were the sole source of food after an apocalyptic battle where only thousands survived. I made up stories in a futile attempt to bore myself to sleep. The problem was, I got so wrapped up in my "head stories" that I would continue them through the following nights, changing it up each time to make it more exciting. Eventually, I started writing my ideas down - creating short stories, and then I discovered my love for poetry.

It's almost embarrassing how many spiral notebooks and stacks of paper I have of poetry and lyrics.

Another passion: digital art. I design all my book covers, marketing, and series art. I'm a very visual person and pursued photography as an avid hobby for many years.

I am not a YA author (I feel like I have to state this only because I've had a few people ask), but I think it's wonderful there are so many books available to teens in Urban Fantasy and Paranormal.

I am finally doing what I have always wanted to do: giving my characters a pulse through writing full time. I focus on adult urban fantasy romance, but I don't like labels and I enjoy blending genres to break out of the confines of predictability.

But it's what I love to do.

-Danni

You can stalk, I mean, find Dannika here:

            

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In the Spotlight Promo Post & Giveaway: A Duchess in the Dark by Kate McKinley

Miss Daphne Hayward is on the hunt for a safe, honorable husband and she has set her sights on the perfect target. She plans a full-scale seduction that will bring him to his knees, and have him begging for her hand in marriage. But when she mistakenly slips into another man's bed, the passions that quickly ignite threaten to send her well-laid plans up in smoke. 

Ashton Fitzgerald, Duke of Claymore has never been for want of a willing woman in his bed and his rakish ways have become legend in boudoirs and dark corners all across London. But not even Ashton can account for the powerful desire that surges through him when a mysterious woman pays him a clandestine midnight visit. As dawn breaks, his goddess flees before he can learn her identity. Now Ashton will stop at nothing to unmask the identity of the woman who bewitched him body and soul and make her his . . . forever.

~*~Buy links~*~

Amazon

B&N

Bookish

iTunes

~*~About the Author~*~

Kate McKinley writes Regency and Fantasy Romance. When she's not staring at her screen, dreaming up delicious heroes, she's a wife, mother and part-time assistant.

~*~Author Links~*~

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

~*~Giveaway~*~

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Blog Tour Post/Book Review: A Vampire's Christmas Carol by Cynthia Eden

A Vampire's Christmas Carol 

by Cynthia Eden

This holiday season has bite.

Ben Prescott hates Christmas—he’s a vampire, and to him, there’s certainly nothing jolly about the holiday season.  While the humans are running around being merry, he’s hunting in the shadows.  Ben plans to spend the holidays his way…by stalking deadly prey. 

But fate has other plans for Ben.

Three visitors are coming Ben’s way…A demon who will force  Ben to face his past, a ghost who will show Ben the present he could have, and a shifter  who will reveal the darkness that waits in Ben’s future. Unless Ben can change his ways, he may just turn into a real monster, one who can’t be saved by anyone or anything.

‘Tis the season…to be undead.

Ben’s redemption rests in the hands of the one woman he loved and lost—Simone Laurent.  If Ben is going to have a chance at being more than just the beast in the darkness, he has to prove himself to the lovely Simone.  A very hard task, considering that, once upon a Christmas Eve, Simone died in Ben’s arms…  

Warning: 

This book features one very tortured vampire, a sexy ghost from his past, and hot scenes designed to melt the winter snow. Plenty of action, adult situations, and steamy times are ahead. Happy holidays!    

Available to purchase at 

          

Review

This book was certainly not what I expected. It's a different kind of paranormal take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Our Scrooge in this version is the sexy, undead vampire by the name of Ben. Ben is suffering from the death of Simone, his one and only.  While everyone is off celebrating with family and loved ones, Ben is prowling the streets for anyone to deserves to be killed. Well, it's tough nuts for Ben. The powers that be have something else in store for him for Christmas and it starts with a visit from from peeps from his past. A trio of supernatural beings come together to help Ben get past his emotional trauma and hopefully direct him to make the right choices to a happier future. It was a great, novella-type read. The characters were worth investing in, emotionally.

Excerpt

The fire flared again, and in the next instant, William was right in front of Ben. 

The demon was fast. “You should be more grateful. You’re immortal. One of the most powerful vampires I’ve ever come across. But you’re going down a dark and dangerous path, a path you don’t want to take.”

Ben offered him a grim smile. “It’s the only path for me.” Blood and death and demons. Yeah, that all seemed right.  

“Once you wanted more.”  William grabbed Ben’s hand. The demon’s touch burned, and smoke rose from Ben’s skin. “You just need to remember that. Remember who you were before.” 

Ben twisted his wrist, but, even with his vamp strength, he couldn’t break free from William’s hold.  “Let. Me. Go.” Or he’d be ripping the demon’s head off in the next five seconds.

“I’m the first visitor of the night.”

The first?

“There will be three, and in the end, the choice will be yours.”  William glared at

him. “But I’m telling you, asshole, make the right choice.”

Ben flashed his fangs and went for the demon’s throat. He braced himself for the acid burn to come. He’d drunk from a demon before, and he knew that taste would be a real bitch. 

Before his fangs could slice into William, flames erupted around them. Surrounded

them. And Ben knew he was about to die. 

His last thought…

Buy Links

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

About the Author

USA Today Best-selling author Cynthia Eden has written over twenty-five novels and novellas. She was named as a 2013 RITA^® finalist for her paranormal romance, ANGEL IN CHAINS, and, in 2011, Cynthia Eden was a RITA finalist for her romantic suspense, DEADLY FEAR.

Cynthia is a southern girl who loves horror movies, chocolate, and happy endings.  She has always wanted to write (don’t most authors say that?), and particularly enjoys creating stories about monsters–vampires, werewolves, and even the real-life monsters that populate her romantic suspense stories.

Cynthia’s foreign sales for her books include translations to Japan, Germany, Thailand, Greece, and Brazil.

(Back in the day…) Cynthia graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Alabama where she studied Sociology (because people interest her) and Communication (because she likes to write about said people).  Cynthia has worked as a college admissions counselor, a teacher, and as an editor. But now, Cynthia is thrilled to be spending her days making up stories.

          

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