@GoddessFish Book Blast - Lizzy by Krystal Shannan @KrystalShannan

Today, I welcome back Krystal Shannan, author of Caiden, Harvey, and today's feature Lizzy

The Deets...

Keeping secrets is dangerous…and painful.

The last man who found out Lizzy MacLaughlin’s secret left without so much as a goodbye. Now, utterly in love, Lizzy holds her breath that her six-month relationship with retired army ranger, Ethan Hart, won’t end the same way.

Life is never perfect…or easy.

Ethan is head-over-heels in love with Lizzy, and warring schedules make time together precious. Determined to be together without interruptions, they plan a weekend getaway at his lake house –unaware the past Ethan is trying to ignore is coming hell-bent on destroying what Ethan holds most dear.

Will Lizzy’s secret tear them apart, or will something far worse threaten their very lives?

Sneak Peek inside the cover of Lizzy

“Mom has given the stink eye to every guy that’s ever taken me out. She has to make up for Dad not being here.”

A surge of jealousy wormed its way into his mind. “How many guys have you been out with?”

“Simmer down, soldier.” She giggled and winked. “My love life is boring and consists of one guy in high school and two guys in college. I wasn’t a nun, but it wasn’t like I got around either. You have nothing to be all caveman about.”

“Sorry, I was having a moment.” He really was. The thought of any other man touching her, kissing her, putting hands anywhere on her body made his blood boil.

“No worries, but would you mind terribly going and getting me a plate of bread and cheese. I swear the buffet smells like something died and then came back to life, but I’m starving and desperate.”
His concerns returned full-force with her joking comment about smelly food. Something was going on with her. It’d been nearly a week since he’d seen her eat any meant and that was very out of character.

“Sit here, baby. I’ll be right back.” He helped her into a chair at an empty table and then went to the buffet table.

The spread of food ranged from deliciously smelling barbeque, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, cole slaw, and trays of crackers, cheese, and fruit. Nothing smelled out of the ordinary to him, but he grabbed an assortment of crackers and cheese, along with a few pieces of fruit, just in case she might want some.

He walked back to her and set the plate in front of her along with another glass of water he’d snagged from a passing server.

“Thank you.” She smiled and popped a cracker in her mouth.

“Anything for you, baby. I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well.”

“I’ll be fine. I promise. I’m already feeling better,” she answered and bit into a slice of cheese. 

“This is really good.”

“Little sis, you okay?” Karen said you weren’t feeling well.” Caiden’s voice over his shoulder startled him. 

He was the only one of Lizzy’s brothers who could sneak up on him.

“I’m fine, Caiden. Don’t you dare go telling Trevor or Harvey. I got a little overheated outside. I’m fine. Ethan is taking good care of me.”

Her big brother snorted and Ethan bit back a grin. The MacLaughlin brothers all liked him, but after walking into the dressing room this morning with Lizzy’s sparkly lip-gloss smeared on his mouth, they were rescinding their approval temporarily. 

“I’ll come back in a little while and check on you again.”

Ethan turned in his chair and met Caiden’s hard glare. “I won’t leave her.”

“I know.” Caiden sighed and nodded. He stepped toward his sister and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
She smiled and patted her brother’s arm. “You worry too much. Go back to Lina and enjoy the party.”

Available @

 Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | B&N

Who is Krystal Shannan...?

Paranormal Romance author, Krystal Shannan, lives in Texas and is married to the love-of-her-life. They have a spunky young daughter who believes in fairies. Krystal professes to loving shoes, but avoids wearing them at all costs. She teaches in the public schools and writes as much as she can in her free time. If any more spare time can be squeezed from her day, she enjoys reading romance in all genres, but especially paranormal. If it has a 'Happily Ever After', she's on board! 

Paranormal Romance author, Krystal Shannan, lives in Texas and is married to the love-of-her-life. They have a spunky young daughter who believes in fairies. Krystal professes to loving shoes, but avoids wearing them at all costs. She teaches in the public schools and writes as much as she can in her free time. If any more spare time can be squeezed from her day, she enjoys reading romance in all genres, but especially paranormal. If it has a 'Happily Ever After', she's on board! 

She is an active member in her local RWA chapter DARA.

Krystal Shannan, Putting Magick in Romance one Soul Mate at a Time.
Contemporary Romance
Indie Published

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Wilde Riders - By Savanah Young @shortontimebook

Wilde Riders - Week Blitz

by Savannah Young

New Adult Contemporary Romance

Date Published: 2/23/2014

WILDE RIDERS (An Old Town Country Romance)

FOUR WILDE BROTHERS…ONE WILDE COUNTRY BAND

WILDE RIDERS is the first novel in a spicy new contemporary romance series about four sexy brothers, their small-town bar and their local country band. WILDE RIDERS can be read as a STAND ALONE NOVEL or as part of the SERIES.

Cooper Wilde spent his entire adolescence counting the days until he could escape rural northwest New Jersey. Now at 26, he can’t believe he’s coming back. But his late father’s bar, Haymakers, is in financial trouble and his older brother, Jake, has asked for Cooper’s help. 

Riley Smith, 25, is fresh out of her Ivy League MBA program and wants to make an impression on her employer, H & C Bank. Her first solo assignment is a fraud investigation on a business loan they made to Haymakers.

Even though Old Town is less than 90 minutes from New York City, Riley feels like she’s stepped into another world in this remote, one-bar town. Riley can’t wait to do her business and get back to the city as quickly as her sports car will take her…until she meets Cooper Wilde. He’s not like the other guys in this rural town and Riley feels inexplicably attracted to him.  

EXCERPT

The drive into New Jersey is exhausting. My only saving grace is that most of the traffic is going into the city instead of out of the city like I am. You’ve got to love those bridge and tunnel guys. I wouldn’t date one but I have a little bit of respect for them. The commute into Manhattan turns a nine hour work day into an eleven hour one, if you’re lucky.

  I can feel my stomach start to knot as I get further away from the city and further away from civilization. Pretty soon I’ll be in the sticks surrounded by woods and farmland. I can almost smell the manure that will no doubt take days to completely rid from my nasal passages. I pray that I don’t run into any animals, especially cows, which are huge, smelly and completely freak me out. The only live animals I ever care to see have to fit comfortably in a handbag, like a Chihuahua or Teacup Poodle, for example.

I have an appointment with a man named Jake Wilde. He asked me to come early, before the place opens at noon, so he can give me his full attention. I try to imagine what someone named Jake Wilde would look like and all I can come up with is an old gunslinger like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven.

As I pull into Old Town the place looks exactly like I thought it would. The buildings in the town square are old and I image the place hasn’t changed much in the last hundred years or so.

Haymakers is just past the town square, down the hill from the deli, next to the gas station. Those were the exact directions I was given, in those words. I take that to mean the town only has one gas station and one deli.

When I pull into the parking lot, there’s only one other vehicle sitting there. It’s an old beat-up Dodge Ram. Nothing like fitting the country bumpkin stereotype like a glove. Then I have a brief moment of panic and wonder if it’s safe to park my BMW in the dirt lot. Then I remind myself where I am. Who is going to mess with it in the middle of the day? A stray deer from the woods out back? The only thing I probably have to worry about is it getting dusty.

I take in a deep breath. I have to be thankful there’s no manure smell yet. The quicker you do this, I remind myself, the quicker you can get back to the lovely asphalt jungle you call home.

I’m hit with a gust of wind as soon as I get out of my car. How is it possible that Old Town is even windier than lower Manhattan? I didn’t think I’d ever find a place windier than Wall Street. Even the Windy City didn’t seem this windy when I had business in Chicago.

When I enter the bar, I try to smooth down my thick hair, which I know is probably a complete mess from the gust. I’m surprised by the homey feel of the place. How could someone like me possibly feel at home in a country bar? Even if I was wearing jeans and cowboy boots, if I even owned jeans and cowboy boots, I wouldn’t fit in at a place like this. 

I hear someone clear his throat and I turn to see a guy about my age, mid-twenties, standing next to me. I can’t help my surprise when I see he’s wearing khakis and a polo shirt, like he just stepped off of a golf course. He looks as out of place in this country bar as I feel.

“Are you Jake Wilde?” I ask.

The guy gives me the faintest hint of a smile but it’s almost as if it pains him to give that much. His deep brown eyes look even more distressed and I can’t help but wonder what’s behind those sad eyes.

He rakes his fingers through his thick dark hair. “A little windy out, isn’t it?”

My hand automatically goes to my hair and I try to casually flatten it down again. I imagine I must look like I just stepped out of a wind tunnel.

“Your hair looks fine,” the guy tries to assure me. But he’s got that hint of a smile on his face again and it makes me wonder if he’s lying just to make me feel better.

“I’m Cooper Wilde,” the guy says as he offers a hand.

 I don’t know why I suddenly feel nervous about shaking it. It’s a business meeting. That’s what people do. But the way this guy is looking at me gives me the feeling that he might be interested in more than just business.

But I’m not, I remind myself. Not only because I’ve all but sworn off men, I’m here to do a job. I’ve been working for H & C Bank for two years and this is my first solo assignment as a lead investigator. If I continue to do well, I’ll be well on my way to becoming a Vice President before I turn thirty. I don’t need a man to throw me off my career trajectory. And definitely not some guy in a country bar in rural New Jersey.

I take his hand and give it a quick shake but I can’t bring myself to look into his smoldering eyes again. “I’m Riley Smith.”

“I figured that,” Cooper says.

“Why is that?”

That hint of a smile has returned to his face again. “We don’t often get women in business suits in the bar.”

I’m not sure why I’m suddenly overcome with the urge to get a real smile out of Cooper Wilde. I don’t know even know the guy but it somehow seems important. I get the feeling he hasn’t really smiled in a while and it’s long overdue.

Not that I’ve had much occasion for real smiles myself lately.

Savannah Young:

Romance novelist Savannah Young grew up in rural northwest New Jersey in a place very similar to the fictional Old Town, which is featured in her books. When she's not at her computer creating spicy stories, Savannah is traveling to exotic locales or spending time with her husband and their bloodhounds.

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Release Day Feature, Excerpt & Giveaway! - A Fair Exchange by Monique McDonell @MoniqueMcDonell

Today I welcome fellow author Monique McDonell to Beyond My Writing Space.

A Fair Exchange by Monique McDonell

A Fair Exchange

Who hasn’t wondered about their first love? What happened? What went wrong? Where are they now?

What if you got a second chance?

Amelia Armstrong is about to find out. What a shame her long-lost love, Matt,  has returned  (looking way too good and acting way too sweet) when her life is a shambles and she has finally decided once and for all to put herself and not whichever man is currently in her life, first.

How do you balance that desire to recapture that loving feeling with the need to finally be the best version of yourself? What if this really is the one, how do you choose when to stand your ground and when to cut your losses?  Amelia takes a journey from Sydney to New York and back again trying to find the answers while negotiating with pop-divas, ex-lovers, crazy teenagers, a well-meaning cousin and the tabloids.

A Fair Exchange is a story about being a grown up when, maybe, you’d much rather be sixteen again.

A sneak peak inside A Fair Exchange

It was not as if he was the first one to mention it. In the past week everyone who had entered my apartment had commented on the shiny new Vespa parked in the middle of the otherwise empty living room. In fact, each and every one of them had imaginatively said “Amelia you have a red Vespa parked in your living room!”  And they all said it in a tone that implied I might not have noticed, as if it may have magically appeared there.

How could I not notice a vehicle parked in what was otherwise an empty room? 

What amazed me was that the Vespa was what they chose to comment on.

Not that Nick had dumped me, after ten years, for a twenty-one year-old. Nor that he had moved out, taking basically all the furniture and leaving me with a great view over the beach and an enormous mortgage.

No one even commented about the fact that I, in turn, had quit the fabulous job that had always meant way too much to me. 

No, they commented on the Vespa.

What I could not understand though was why it hadn’t bothered me until right then, when Matthew Blue commented. And when he did comment, why had I collapsed into this embarrassing sea of tears?

How had this happened? How had I become this sobbing pathetic figure of womanhood?  And more importantly how had I ended up thirty-six and alone?

Didn’t I used to have so much potential? Everyone had said so, hadn’t they?

“Amelia Armstrong is something special.”

I was one of those shiny young girls who took risks and dreamed big. I was one of the smart ones who knew what she wanted and went after it. I was one to watch.

If I hadn’t been that kind of a girl I would never have met Matthew all those years ago. A different girl would not have found herself, on the other side of the world, at sixteen, staring into his dark and dreamy eyes.

So where was that girl right now, I wanted to know? And how had a girl with so much potential gotten it so horribly wrong? 

Who is Monique McDonell?

I am an Australian author who writes contemporary women's fiction including chick lit and romance. I live on Sydney's Northern Beaches with my husband and daughter, and despite my dog phobia, with a dog called Skip.

I have written all my life especially as a child when I loved to write short stories and poetry. At University I studied Creative Writing as part of my Communication degree. Afterwards I was busy working in public relations I didn't write for pleasure for quite a few years although I wrote many media releases, brochures and newsletters. (And I still do in my day-job!)

When I began to write again I noticed a trend - writing dark unhappy stories made me unhappy. So I made a decision to write a novel with a happy ending and I have been writing happy stories ever since.

I have been a member of the writing group The Writer’s Dozen for eight years. Our anthology Better Than Chocolate raised over $10,000 for the charity Room to Read and helped build a library in South East Asia. I am also a member of the Romance Writers of Australia.

A Fair Exchange is the fifth novel I have released in the last two years.

To learn more about Monique McDonell and her upcoming books please visit her at www.moniquemcdonell.com.au

Links:

Amazon author page | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Goodreads

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