Category Archives: Excerpt

RELEASE TOUR – Buried Roots

I might have found my own grave. Or not, but I don’t have time to figure it out because my sexy neighbor, Owen, is helping me restore an inherited historic estate. But the more we dig, the more my disturbing buried roots surface. I have to confront that grave… and my bombshell family secret. Readers who love Catherine Cowles, Colleen Hoover, and Nora Roberts will fall head-over-heels for Buried Roots by Terra Weiss, a steamy, small town, heroine in danger, cinnamon roll hero, forced proximity romantic comedy mystery.

Buy Now or Read for FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazon → https://amzn.to/42IIQdI

Blurb

I might’ve found my own grave.

Or not, but I don’t have time to figure it out. A perfect stranger willed me his neglected fifty-acre farm, and now, this New Yorker has two weeks to get it sell-ready. With a business to run, I can’t stay in this boondock town a second longer.

But I’ve got it handled—even after a series of suspicious property mishaps. Even after the threatening notes.

My veterinarian neighbor Owen Brooks shows up with a sledgehammer, a wicked sexy smile, and Demon, his appropriately named foster bulldog. But after losing my family, I only rely on myself.

That doesn’t stop Owen and the town of Violet Moon from showing up for me. Maybe family isn’t just blood.

Owen and I can’t deny our magnetic connection as we restore the historic estate. But the more we dig, the more my disturbing buried roots surface. I have to confront that grave… and my bombshell family secret.

Add to Goodreads!

Goodreadshttps://bit.ly/462vZWC

Excerpt

Copyright 2023 Terra Weiss

Owen keeps showing up for me, something I didn’t know just how much I needed until now. I move my hand down to Owen’s and take it. His skin is warm, and I feel the roughness of his palm against mine. His fingers are long, but his grip is gentle.
I pull Owen in for another kiss, our mouths moving in synchrony. I’m trying to stay away—to protect my heart and his—but it feels almost impossible when I get lost in those eyes of his, part ocean, part storm cloud. I’m starting to think we’re two magnets incapable of getting close without drawing together.
We stand, just holding each other. The sun shining through the sky window warms my face, and I close my eyes, taking in the moment. When I open them, Owen has an expression that I’ve never seen before. His lips are slightly parted, his eyes almost mesmerized as he looks at me, like I’m the only one he sees.
He moves his hands up my arms and to my shoulders, bringing his lips up to my ear. His breath tickles as he whispers, “You deserve to know your roots. You deserve everything.”
His words fill a hole deep within me, and I turn and face him, just a breath away. When our mouths catch, his lips move slowly, gently, and calmness washes over me. I forget who I am, or who I might be, and how I don’t belong. How Owen lives here, and how I live somewhere else entirely.
His kiss deepens with more intensity and intention, and I take in every morsel of it. The mint on his breath, the silk of his lips, the scent of the air when he’s nearby. My grip tightens around him when I realize that this is where I belong.

Buy Now or Read for FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazonhttps://amzn.to/42IIQdI

About Terra Weiss

Terra Weiss is a romcom author with a knack for witty banter and gift for capturing authentic family dynamics. Readers love how her stories steer away from typical romcom cookie-cutter formulas and show how real-life people find real-life love.

When Terra’s not spilling the tea on what happens in the big and small towns that live in her heart, you’ll find her with her spunky daughter, mad scientist husband, wacky and wonderful mother, and the two six-pound dogs that run her house. She enjoys jogging at a snail’s pace, reading from her iPhone, and piling bright orange mountains of squeezy cheese on her crackers.

Author Links

Website → https://www.terraweiss.com/

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/terraweissauthor/

Reader Group → https://www.facebook.com/terraweissauthor/

Twitter → https://twitter.com/terrajw

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/terraweissauthor/

Goodreads → https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22037181

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This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR

BLOG TOUR – Ablaze (Elements of Rapture #3) by Swati MH

Title: Ablaze

Series: Elements of Rapture Series

Author: Swati MH

Release Date: August 31, 2023

Genre/Tropes: Brother’s Best Friend, Friends to Lovers, One Bed/One Night, Firefighter, Age Gap

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194025630-ablaze

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/ablaze-elements-of-rapture-book-3-by-swati-mh

Cover Design: Cover Me Darling

NOTE: The discreet cover will only be available on paperback, the hot man cover will be for both ebook and special edition paperback.

Blurb:

Nine years . . . That’s how long I’ve secretly loved my brother’s best friend. A man who fights fires for a living but sets me ablaze with nothing but a cocky grin.

Dean Meyer has made it clear that we’re just friends–best friends. So when we get stranded in an epic snowstorm, sharing one bed in a roadside motel, what could go wrong?

Everything.

We may have blurred the lines over the past nine years, but we’d never crossed them. Not the way we did that night. 

He promised nothing would change. That he’d forget every kiss and every touch, every whimper and every moan. He promised we’d walk out the door and go back to the way things were.

He promised . . . but he lied.

And now, a year of missed calls and unanswered texts later, we find ourselves forced back together again. 

Will the fire still burn between us, or did that one night’s blaze leave us with nothing but ashes?

Buy Links (Kindle Unlimited):

Universal: https://mybook.to/Ablaze_SwatiMH

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Praise:

5 Star Goodreads Review – “OMG, Mind-Blowing & Fire 🔥”

5 Star Goodreads Review – “The story within these pages is sure to capture your heart and set it ablaze!”

5 Star Rellim’s Review – “Swati M.H. crafts one of the most beautiful and thorough friendship aspects for a friends-to-lovers story that I’ve ever read.”

Excerpt:

Prologue: Dean – Present Day

Embers dart up into the breeze as the fire crackles like an old staticky radio. The scent of burning logs entangles with the familiar perfume of towering pines and moss tickles my senses. It’s a scent that should relax me. A scent I’ve known for so long, I’d sometimes pretend I could smell it, only to be able to drift off to sleep.

Today, though, it seems foreign, completely wrong and unwelcomed. A scent that’s captured me in a chokehold so I can neither inhale it nor heave it out. 

It’s just stuck.

Taking another sip of my beer and placing the bottle in the sand, I strum her favorite melody on my guitar, Storms by Fleetwood Mac. The melody she taught me to play at ten when she gifted me my first guitar. 

It’s still hard to believe she’s gone, the earth settling her in, wrapping her in its embrace for eternity. It’s hard to believe I won’t be exchanging new recipes and old songs, new expressions and old memories with her ever again. The woman I gave my heart to only minutes out of the womb almost forty years ago–the one who raised me right along with my mother. The grandmother who was so much more than her title. 

My brother, Darian, throws a small stick into the fire before leaning back on his Adirondack chair and entangling his hand with his wife, Rani’s. He might only be mine and Garrett’s half-brother, but I’d caution anyone who said we didn’t have the same blood running through our veins. He may not have been Grams’ grandson, but she treated him just the same. “I still remember when I spent part of a summer here when I was eight or nine. Every single night, your grandparents would watch WWE religiously.”  

Garrett chuckles but my chest tightens with memories of Grams and Grandpa exchanging their picks for who’d win the match. No one loved wrestling more than Grams, and no one could convince her it wasn’t real. 

I still remember how she’d have dinner prepared extra early on nights when her favorite wrestlers were going to be on. Garrett and I spent so many of our childhood summers at this lake house, sitting knees-crossed on the couch, snuggled on either side of her. We’d cheer and boo right along with Grams, even though we knew the whole match was rigged.

“She was a kooky little thing.” I try to chuckle, but it comes out all wrong with a choked inhale. I’m just about to take another swig of my beer to soothe the sand inside my throat when her soft hand grasps mine. 

Her. The fucking enigma I’ve spent nine years of my life trying to crack. 

The woman who packed up her things and got ready to leave without so much as a discussion with me–the man she claims to be her best friend. The woman who set my heart ablaze the same day she quelled the pyre. The woman who changed me day-by-fucking-day, just to unravel me in one fucking night.

A night she told me to forget, to chalk it up as a blip in our history, a moment–or rather, six fucking hours–of lowered inhibitions and bad decisions. A night that’s replaced the scent of burning logs and pine that used to help me drift off to sleep. Because if I can’t have the source, then the memories will have to suffice.

I pull my hand from her grasp, blinking back tears. 

Loss. The fucking loss of it all. 

My two best friends. A woman I just buried, and a woman whose touch I can’t bury, no matter how hard I try.

We’ve shared a room together for the past four days we’ve been at Grams’s lake house, and even though I knew we should talk–something that used to be as natural as blinking or breathing–I shut her down each time.

Because she tried. She tried to talk to me, to tell me whatever her fucked-up reasoning was for not being back home–with me–but I couldn’t listen to the same bullshit again. So, aside from the times she held me in her arms, letting me mourn my grandmother while soothing me with her soft whispers well into the morning, we haven’t spoken a single word.

Because, really, there’s nothing to say, is there? 

How could there be when she said it all so clearly that day?

Rani yawns before telling us she’ll see us in the morning when we’re all ready to head back home, and Darian follows after her like the lovesick puppy he is. Meanwhile, Garrett and Bella whisper God knows what to each other across from me on the other side of the fire. My twin brother might have married the woman sitting in his lap on a drunken whim, but the only thing I’ve seen him drunk on over the past four years is her. 

Mala shifts in her chair before standing, her bare legs covered with goosebumps. No matter what the weather is, the woman has always had a vendetta against pants. She pulls the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt over her hands and wraps her arms around her chest. “I think I’m going to take a little stroll around the beach.” 

I watch her leave as the breeze picks up her shiny black hair–hair that looks and feels like spun silk. Her sneakered feet make small indentations in the sand as her hips sway with a lilt of their own. 

Garrett and I exchange a glance, a silent message spoken and heard only by us. One that urges me to stop being the idiot he thinks I’m being. 

But he has no clue. No one does. 

It’s not that I can’t tell him–hell, he and Darian would be the first ones I’d tell if I committed murder and hid the body–but some fears can’t be voiced. Some fears are for you to grapple with all on your own.

I pluck the guitar strings a few more times before the weight of the breeze threatens to snuff the oxygen inside my lungs. Placing my guitar on the sand, I lean it against my chair and give my brother a nod before running after her. 

The stars twinkle like a dusting of diamonds in the moonlit sky, the ripples in the lake overpowering the crackles of the fire behind me. 

It doesn’t take long to find her, sitting on the beach with her bare knees drawn close to her chest, wrapped inside her covered arms like a blanket. I know she’s cold, but for as long as I’ve known her, she’s preferred it that way, claiming heat has always felt too suffocating to her. 

I suppose I can’t blame her, especially not when you’ve lived through the horror she’s experienced.

As if she can feel me, she turns to watch me walk toward her before a wisp of hair gets caught between her lips and she pulls it off to tuck it behind her ear, darting her gaze away from mine. 

“You promised you wouldn’t run away,” I start. “You promised to–”

“No, Dean.” She shuffles to her feet quicker than I would have thought possible given how cold she looked. “You fucking promised. You promised nothing would change. You promised that night wouldn’t affect us. Remember that? But it did, didn’t it? It changed everything! And all the years prior to that, when you told me you couldn’t, wouldn’t mess up what we have . . . or should I say, what we had?” She points between us. “What happened to that promise, huh?” She looks over at the lake with rage in her eyes. “I waited for you. Eight fucking years I stood on the sidelines, waiting for you . . .”

“Yeah?” I yell. “As if I fucking didn’t? You think you’re the only one who had front-row seats to watch a show you never wanted to see?”

She takes a step closer, her nostrils flaring. “So why didn’t you say anything when you had the chance? Why wait until I was finally moving on?” 

“Moving on? Is that what you call it, sprinkles?” I chuckle mirthlessly. “Because the way I see it, you weren’t moving on; you were running.”

Her eyes sharpen on me. “Yeah, okay, I was running. But have you taken even one moment to consider why? Or is that too hard for you to do, given your brick of a brain?” She seethes. “I was running because I was fucking tired. Tired of waiting, tired of wanting and wishing–” 

I heave in a shaky breath, letting the cold air compress my lungs as I hang on her words for dear life. Words she’s cut off, like if she says them, they’ll float away with the wind. “Wishing for what?”

She shakes her head, wiping her cheek with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, but the moment she does, another tear falls to replace it. “It doesn’t matter.” She chuckles hoarsely. “Why would it matter? I’m not the one who can make it matter. I never have been.”

I close the distance between us, rounding my palms over her biceps and making her look up at me. “Wishing for what, Mala? Say it.”

She sniffles, her tear-stained cheeks shining under the silvery effulgence of the night. Her frown intensifies as she whispers, “For it to be me.”

Also Available (Kindle Unlimited):

Adrift

Ascend

Amazon Universal: https://mybook.to/ElementsRapture

Author Bio:

Swati MH is a Texas raised contemporary romance author living in the Bay Area with her very own book husband and two beautiful daughters. When she’s not writing stories full of humor, heart, and heartbreak, she’s likely thinking about doing so . . . preferably while holding a glass of wine.

Social Media Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08KHZ1YR4

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swati.mh

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/authorswatimh

Readers Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/971970126616695

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/swatimh

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/swati-m-h

Tiktok: @authorswatimh

RELEASE BLITZ – Here With Me by Brooke Montgomery

From small-town romance author, Brooke Montgomery, comes a family saga series based in the fictional town of Sugarland Creek set in the Mountains of East Tennessee.Readers who love steamy romances will enjoy Here With Me: a forbidden, age-gap romance.

Blurb

A forbidden age gap stand-alone from small-town romance author Brooke Montgomery about a daring horse trainer and her off-limits ex-boyfriend’s dad…

When we met at the rodeo, I only knew his first name.

Sparks ignited between us, and we spent an unforgettable night together. It’s not until the morning after when I recognize his last name do I realize who he is.

So I do what any rational woman would and make the walk of shame while he sleeps. It’s not like I’ll ever see him again or have to explain why I left.

But I’m proven wrong when he shows up at my family’s ranch as the new farrier.

We can’t be more than friends—for many reasons. 

He’s twice my age, workplace relationships are off-limits, and he moved back to rebuild a relationship with his son—the one I used to date.

Getting involved would ruin everything.

As we struggle between right and wrong, our connection deepens even though his traumatic past makes him doubt he deserves a second chance.

But it doesn’t matter when everything’s against us, including a rival who’s out to get me and my ex who’s determined to win me back.

After a riding trick goes wrong on his watch, he insists on taking care of me. Even though the odds are stacked against us, we keep the truth to ourselves.

But secrets don’t stay hidden for long in a Southern small town.

Here With Me is book 1 in the Sugarland Creek series. Contains 20+ year age gap, ex-boyfriend’s dad, workplace romance, opposites attract, and secret relationship vibes. Each book in this Southern, small-town series is a stand-alone and ends in a happily ever after. Please read the content warning before the prologue.

Add to Goodreads

Goodreadshttps://bit.ly/456w2jJ

Buy Now!

https://geni.us/Here-with-me

BLP REVIEW – Tracy

I thoroughly enjoyed Noah & Fisher’s book.

I liked that their initial interactions were away from home Abd that neither knew who the other was….. until they did!!

Noah had dated Fisher’s son, not that he’d have known as Fisher has been gone for various reasons for a number of years. The realization that he’s the new farrier at her family’s ranch had Noah in a tailspin but that heat and connection was still there, even when they both said that nothing could happen.

I liked Fisher. He’d made mistakes, messed up a few times but was back and trying and even though I didn’t like it, he was thinking of what he considered his priorities instead of his own wants!

I enjoyed finding out about them both as they both discovered more about each other.

The suspense and mystery around the ranch made for interesting reading and while I thought I knew who was to blame I was surprised when the truth came out.

There was so much heat and love in this book and I was engaged in this pair from the start.

I’m looking forward to more in this series from Brooke!!

Excerpt

Copyright 2023 @Brooke Montgomery

Noah’s POV:

Fuck, where is my bra?

After Fisher took off my dress, I flung my bra somewhere. I’m not about to leave without it since it’s the only one I packed. I don’t need my piercings blinding my family.

As I lower to my hands and knees, crawling around with my ass straight up, I find it underneath his jeans.

Thank God.

Next, I dig in my bag for my panties.

It’s one thing to make the walk of shame at seven in the morning, but it’s shameful to do it commando.

And I am a classy Southern lady, after all.

With the exception of last night.

Once I’m dressed and slide on my boots, I grab the rest of my things. Fisher hasn’t stirred once since I climbed over his naked body and slid out of his bed. I’m half tempted to check his neck for a pulse.

That’d be my luck.

Best sex of my life leads to him dying afterward.

I know he’s older, but he’s not that old.

When I see his wallet on the counter, I contemplate taking a peek at his license to see his birth year. Amid our grinding against each other make-out session, I asked if he had a condom, and he told me to grab one from his wallet, which was in the back pocket of his jeans. Once I grabbed it, I tossed the leather aside.

Glancing once more at Fisher to make sure he’s still in a sleep coma, I open his wallet and look at his ID.

He’s forty-four.

Exactly twice my age.

Okay, so it’s not that bad.

He doesn’t even look forty.

It could be worse. He could be fifty.

But then I blink, reread his full name, and it does. It gets so much worse.

Fisher Underwood.

It can’t be. My throat tightens as I choke down the surprise I never expected.

I need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up.

God, I hope this is a hangover dream.

More like a nightmare.

All the air gets sucked out of my lungs at the realization.

I just slept with my ex-boyfriend’s dad.

More in the series

Come With Me

𝑨 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒈𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈…

Lots of angsty and emotional vibes with…
✔️ Second chance romance
✔️ High school sweethearts
✔️ Secret child
✔️ Family drama
✔️ Suspense
✔️ Small town ranch life
✔️ Family saga series

💙 Now FREE on all retailers!https://geni.us/comewithme

About Brooke Montgomery

Brooke has been writing romance since 2013 under the USA Today Bestselling author pen names: Brooke Cumberland and Kennedy Fox, and now, Brooke Montgomery. She loves writing small-town romance with big families and happily ever afters! She lives in the frozen tundra of Packer Nation with her husband, wild teenager, and four dogs. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, watching ASMR and reading vlogs on YouTube, or binge-watching a TV show she’s most likely behind on. Brooke’s addicted to iced coffee, leggings, and naps. She found her passion for telling stories during winter break one year in grad school—and she hasn’t stopped since.

Author Links:

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/brookemontgomeryauthor

TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@brookewritesromance

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/brookewritesromance

Reader Group → https://bit.ly/3HDsQSP

Goodreads → https://www.goodreads.com/brookemontgomery

BookBub → https://www.bookbub.com/authors/brooke-montgomery

Website→ www.brookewritesromance.com

Newsletter →http://bit.ly/3HfxrKU

Amazon  → https://geni.us/BM_Amazon

ARC Team→ https://geni.us/brooke-arcteam

Master Blogger List→ http://bit.ly/3iNQ7b6

This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR

RELEASE BLITZ – Buried Roots by Terra Weiss

I might have found my own grave. Or not, but I don’t have time to figure it out because my sexy neighbor, Owen, is helping me restore an inherited historic estate. But the more we dig, the more my disturbing buried roots surface. I have to confront that grave… and my bombshell family secret.

Readers who love Catherine Cowles, Colleen Hoover, and Nora Roberts will fall head-over-heels for Buried Roots by Terra Weiss, a steamy, small town, heroine in danger, cinnamon roll hero, forced proximity romantic comedy mystery.

Blurb

I might’ve found my own grave.

Or not, but I don’t have time to figure it out. A perfect stranger willed me his neglected fifty-acre farm, and now, this New Yorker has two weeks to get it sell-ready. With a business to run, I can’t stay in this boondock town a second longer.

But I’ve got it handled—even after a series of suspicious property mishaps. Even after the threatening notes.

My veterinarian neighbor Owen Brooks shows up with a sledgehammer, a wicked sexy smile, and Demon, his appropriately named foster bulldog. But after losing my family, I only rely on myself.

That doesn’t stop Owen and the town of Violet Moon from showing up for me. Maybe family isn’t just blood.

Owen and I can’t deny our magnetic connection as we restore the historic estate. But the more we dig, the more my disturbing buried roots surface. I have to confront that grave… and my bombshell family secret.

Buy Now or Read for FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazonhttps://amzn.to/42IIQdI

Add to Goodreads!

Goodreadshttps://bit.ly/462vZWC

Excerpt

Copyright 2023 Terra Weiss

When the driver steps out, I grip the pepper spray on my key ring. So what if he’s tall with a shock of black hair and atrociously handsome? Who cares if he’s wearing a faded t-shirt and rugged jeans, like some Hallmark movie hottie? I know better than to be fooled by looks.
I check the highway, scanning for other cars. Of course, this country road is empty. When he gets closer, I see the oily black streaks on his face, the filth on his hands, and the dirt on his clothes. And he’s wearing mismatched neon socks. That has to be ironic, no? But his smile is wicked sexy when he says, “Can I help you, ma’am?”
Ma’am? Is he for real? I force a smile and a wave when I say, “No, thank you. I’ve got it.” Translation: don’t come an inch closer.
“You’ve got it?” His voice is incredulous.
“Yup. All good.”
His eyes bulge as he stops and glances at my stuck tire. “All good? Looks like you’re in a bit of a pickle.”
On closer inspection, he has muscles everywhere, and the light scruff on his carved jawbone is annoyingly sexy. Which again, will not stop me from pepper spraying his fine ass. Hello, stranger danger—in the middle of nowhere. “Pickle? Nah.”
He rakes a hand through his wavy dark hair. “Look, this isn’t a sexist thing. I have a mother and three sisters who could kick everyone’s ass. But this road doesn’t see much action, and I can’t leave someone out here.”
“I appreciate that, I really do. But I won’t be stuck long. I’m handy.” That’s a stretch. I restore homes, so I am handy, but not with cars.
He raises a brow as he studies my face. “Handy or not, getting a car out of a ditch is a two-person job. At least.” He cocks his head and hitches up his voice a notch when he adds, “Out here, there’s no Triple A.”
“I don’t need Triple A. But thank you.”
His lips tick as they appear to search for a response. “Once I leave, you might not see another car for hours.”
“I’ll figure it out. I’m a New Yorker.”
“Ah. That explains it.”
My hand lands on my hip. “Explains what, exactly?”
“Nothing.” His mouth curves in a patronizing grin.
His amusement pisses me off. It’s really hard not to sound condescending when I say, “I’m sure you’ve got places to be.”
He hesitates before he hitches his thumb over his shoulder. “Okay, then. I’m leaving.”
Our gazes lock, like we’re in a game of eye-chicken. That’s fine, bring it—I don’t mind studying his. They’re part ocean, part storm cloud—sparkle tinged with despair. Like mine. I don’t look away, don’t blink when I say, “I see that, and good for you. Enjoy your day.”
He steps away in defeat. “I’m really leaving this time. You’ll be out here in the backwoods. All by yourself.” Another step back. “When you could have a mechanically inclined, super handy guy give you a hand.”
I put my palms up. “Again—mechanically inclined, super handy hands right here.” I wiggle my fingers and paint on a smile. “Sir.”
“All righty, then. Good luck.” That grin is back. “Ma’am.”

About Terra Weiss

Terra Weiss is a romcom author with a knack for witty banter and gift for capturing authentic family dynamics. Readers love how her stories steer away from typical romcom cookie-cutter formulas and show how real-life people find real-life love.

When Terra’s not spilling the tea on what happens in the big and small towns that live in her heart, you’ll find her with her spunky daughter, mad scientist husband, wacky and wonderful mother, and the two six-pound dogs that run her house. She enjoys jogging at a snail’s pace, reading from her iPhone, and piling bright orange mountains of squeezy cheese on her crackers.

Author Links

Website → https://www.terraweiss.com/

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/terraweissauthor/

Reader Group → https://www.facebook.com/terraweissauthor/

Twitter → https://twitter.com/terrajw

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/terraweissauthor/

Goodreads → https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22037181

Bookbub → https://www.bookbub.com/profile/terra-weiss

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09MX1R1YT/about

Newsletter → https://www.terraweiss.com/free-stories

Tik Tok → https://www.tiktok.com/@terraweissauthor

This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR.

RELEASE BLITZ – Beards & Babies by Heather Lauren

I haven’t seen Soren Mathews in ten years, but he draws me right back under his spell. We spend one stormy night together living out our teenage fantasies and in the morning, he’s gone again, leaving me to think about him and the secret I’m keeping.

Readers who enjoy romance with childhood crushes and one night stands will love Beards & Babies by Heather Lauren, a steamy, small town, brother’s best friend, beach romance.

Buy Now or Read FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazon → https://amzn.to/3rLE56i

 

Blurb

The bare naked buns of my brother’s best friend greet me in Florida.
I haven’t seen Soren Mathews since the most embarrassing night of my life. Now ten years older, he’s all grizzly man. With a sexy beard and new scars, he draws me right back under his spell.
For one night the storm keeps us under the same roof and we finally live out all our teenage fantasies and secret desires. But the sea calls him the next morning and he’s gone.
I try to move forward with a new life in Candy Cane Key, but I can’t stop thinking about him. I can’t seem to eat and all I want to do is sleep. I’m restless and lost until he comes back and by then we’ve both got secrets we’ve been keeping.

Add to Goodreads Here!

Goodreadshttps://bit.ly/3QhBbAp

Excerpt

Copyright 2023 Heather Lauren

The place is quiet and never fails to bring a strong since of comfort every time I walk through the doors. I kick out of my shoes and wet sweater and make my way for the master shower. The house is huge and technically has four master bedrooms and three smaller bedrooms. My family bought it back in the nineties with their best friends and our two families have been vacationing here ever since. 
Bonnie and Carl Mathews and of course, Soren.
A man who haunts my wet dreams to this very fucking day but couldn’t be more off limits. After a terribly embarrassing incident when I was eighteen, I’ve avoided my childhood crush completely. 
Until right this second. 
I think a squeak comes out of my mouth or maybe its a moan. Either way my feet are firmly fused to the floor as I stare shocked and honestly in awe of the gorgeous man in front of me. 
“Robin!” He shouts in obvious surprise.
Suddenly I regret avoiding this moment for so long. Seeing him. Not just his amazing body. Holy hell the man was chiseled. No, seeing him instantly feels like a balm to my ever spiraling anxiety. After a fast sweep down where my eyeballs absolutely do not belong, I lock eyes with his deep brown ones. 
“Hey.” I say like an idiot. It’s just so good to see him. 
I nervous laugh but turn around quickly, closing the door behind me. 
Oh holy hell Bateman. 
That man is cut. Muscles on every inch of him. Decorated in black ink and he has the sexy v thing I thought only existed in magazines. 
And that cock! Is it normal to swoon over a man’s cock. No, but I’m the weird girl I don’t really do normal. I melt against the back of the bathroom door sighing with a heavy breath at the thought of that monster. Its thick and long and it looks so soft and inviting. His body has changed so much since I last saw him, and I imagine what the black details look like on his hips. Does the tribal ink span his thighs? His ass? 
As I’m daydreaming against the door, soaked to the bone and starting to feel the chill, I’m startled by the water turning off. It hasn’t been more than a minute…right?
I push off the door and hurry down the hall to my room. The lights are all on and I’m surprised to find a bag already on the bed. Walking in I see the Star Wars pins I got him the Christmas before we stopped talking. The sight makes me smile and I wonder again why his bags in here. This is my room. It’s always my room. 
“Hey sorry, I wasn’t expecting you.” 
“You don’t need to be. I’m sorry for barging in, I couldn’t hear the shower over the pelting rain.” I say pointing up at the ceiling trying my best to look at his face as he stands in the doorway, a crisp white towel hanging lose on his hips. Tattoo covered hips. 
“I’ll just grab my bag.” 
“Ok.” I say, but the question burns and after fifteen years why hold back anything. 
“Did you want to sleep in here?”

Buy Now or Read FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazon → https://amzn.to/3rLE56i

About Heather Lauren

Heather is a Polly Pocket-size mom of three with a burly hubby and hairy husky. They live in sunny Arizona where she writes steamy contemporary romance and romantic comedies. Her books feature beefy cinnamon roll heroes (often bearded), dirty talking alphas, and adorkable, strong heroines full of sass. Each one guarantees, good laughs and epic Happily Ever Afters.

Links

Website → https://www.heatherlaurenbooks.com

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/heatherlaurenbooks

Reader Group → https://www.facebook.com/groups/713666169487798

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/heatherlaurenbooks/

Goodreads → https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20801651.Heather_Lauren

Bookbub → https://www.bookbub.com/profile/heather-lauren

Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08LH8XSLZ

Pinterest →https://www.pinterest.com/heatherlaurenbooks/

TikTok →https://www.tiktok.com/@authorheatherlauren

Newsletter → https://storyoriginapp.com/giveaways/77ac4402-396f-11eb-8e2e-d3776136d48e

This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR.

RELEASE BLITZ – Protecting Everleigh (GHOST Legacy Book 4) by PJ Fiala

PJ Fiala’s new release, Protecting Everleigh, is a gorgeous new small town romance out now!

Check it out and be sure to grab your copy today!

Title: Protecting Everleigh

Series: GHOST Legacy Book 4

Author: PJ Fiala

Genre: Small Town Romance 

About Protecting Everleigh: 

USAT author PJ Fiala, brings you the next generation of GHOST operatives set in the small-town of Glen Hollow, Kentucky, where a long-standing rivalry is brewing into an all out war, and love comes calling even in the worst of times.

When the job can only be handled by a team that doesn’t exist, you call GHOST.

He was raised to be a GHOST operative.

She’s an Army-trained, skilled negotiator.

Together they play a game of push and pull—until she finds herself in need of his protection.

Henry Delany inherited his father’s muscular frame and his mother’s penchant for the law. Working for GHOST gives him the opportunity to use both while doing what he loves—protecting the lives of others. Determined to bring tranquility and harmony to Glen Hollow, the small-town he now calls home, he has agreed to work with a closed-off, government liaison in an effort to broker a peace deal .But Protecting Everleigh just might be Henry’s most challenging mission to date . 

Everleigh Hayes was raised to be a negotiator, and Glen Hollow, Kentucky is a small town in need of a truce. She is just the woman to make that happen. Like her previous assignments, she approaches this one with her finely-tuned grace and finesse. But when Everleigh comes face to face with the undercurrent of darkness permeating this little town, she finds herself ensnared by more danger than she’s ever faced. Needing Henry and falling in love with him is a development she’s never negotiated before.

Order Your Copy!

Catching Up with the Series:

Finding Lara

Saving Elena 

Rescuing Kenna

Guarding Adelaide

Shielding Maya

About the Author:

USA Today Best Selling Author, PJ Fiala, has independently published multiple romance novels over the years. Focusing primarily on romantic suspense, she weaves a little bit of reality with a little bit of make-believe to create stories with heat, heart and all the feels. PJ lives in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area but travels to destinations unknown via motorcycle. Spending time with her grandmother Ruth, in Kentucky has helped to mold PJ into a person who enjoys life on the farm as well as life in the burbs. But it was romance novels that took her to places she’d only dreamed of and solidified her love of all things romance and swoony. Her family keeps her feet on the ground when her mind travels too far from home, delivering both a reality check and a nudge to keep it real.

Connect with the Author:

Website | Facebook | Pinterest | Tiktok | Youtube | Goodreads | Bookbub | Amazon

RELEASE BLITZ – Fighting for the Truth (Finding the Truth #4) by A.B. Medley

Title: Fighting for the Truth
Series: Finding the Truth #4
Author: A.B. Medley

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Trope: Childhood Friends to Enemies to Lovers
Release Date: August 18, 2023

BLURB


You’ve always been mine to love and to hate…


Small towns have a way of making you face your past.
And there’s two sides to every story.
Hawk and Brittney met as kids in a time when they both needed someone.
Their worlds were already in a state of unrest when an unexpected betrayal stripped them bare.
Words of hate were uttered and promises broken, leaving them bitter enemies.
One is left fighting for the truth, while the other is left with nothing but a dream.
But time and distance can’t separate them forever and fate seemingly intervenes.
Lines blur as they realize things may not have been what they seemed, and old feelings are resurrected.
But amid salvaging their connection comes another fight.
Hawk’s murky past catches up to him and Brittney is thrust in the middle, leaving him no choice but to fight once more to save the girl he realizes he’s always loved.
Even if it means destroying her dreams and wrecking her heart.
Fighting for her is the only thing that matters, and this is one battle he won’t lose.
Winner takes heart.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126216778-fighting-for-the-truth

PURCHASE LINKS

US: https://amzn.to/3pL1P9W
UK: https://amzn.to/44HYNCb
CA: https://amzn.to/3pPD4JW
AU: https://amzn.to/44HYPtN

Only available at the following retailers for a limited time

B&N: https://bit.ly/3DPYeuP
Kobo: https://bit.ly/459yVjh
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3QI2Cn0
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3OQsdck
Smashwords: https://bit.ly/3Df3BDu

EXCERPTS

#1

She stares at me as her lower lip trembles before finally crawling under the covers. I hear her sniffle as she tries to fight back her emotions. I walk around the bed to where she’s turned on her side so I can see her face. This time she doesn’t meet my eyes, she stares blankly at something behind me.
I kneel and tuck a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. “You mean more to me than anyone ever has, dolcezza. You can trust that.”
She peers at me sadly as she rapidly blinks tears away. “Did you love her? Did she take my place when you left me behind? It was her, wasn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“Did she get all your firsts, Hawk?” she asks in a pain-stricken tone.
I pull my hand back, unsure how to answer, but my silence is answer enough. I thought I loved Angel back then, but I realize now nothing about it was love. Infatuation and running from my demons landed me in her arms. And regrettably, I did share my first time with her instead of Brittney like I should have. Angel is the definition of deceit. If you look it up in the dictionary, her picture should be beside it.
Brittney closes her eyes, and the tears leak down her nose and into her hair. I attempt to wipe them away, but she whispers a plea, “Please don’t.”
“Baby…” I start.
Her watery gaze focuses on me. “I know you care. I even believe you love me, Hawk. But I don’t think you’re in love with me. Not in the same way I’m in love with you. It’s only ever been you since we were kids.”
I stare at her in surprise. I don’t know how to respond. I do think I’m in love with her, but I’m not going to drag her into what it means to be a Rossi. My grandfather made it clear I owe him for his help. The debt will be settled by taking on the role he thinks I should. My feelings for Brittney can’t save me from that fate.

#2

“I’m here now to lay all my cards out,” he says softly.
“Here are all the facts. I have family in Nashville who may require my attention, but Greendale Valley is home. I love working on Valley B with Tate. I won’t hide anything about my family from you, but at the same time, I won’t ever let anything from that part of my life hurt you. If your dream is to sing, I’m behind you each step of the way. I love that you have the biggest and most giving heart even if it’s been broken. You see the best in people, and I hope you still see that in me. Because I’m in love with you, Brittney,” he tells me as he swipes the tears from under my eyes with his thumbs.
“There is no fight more worthy of winning than the one for your heart…to be your last and forever,” he adds with a hopeful smile.
I let out a sob or a laugh, to be honest, I’m not sure which. I grab his face on each side and pull his lips to mine. He drops his hands to my legs and hoists me up, so they wrap around his waist.
The same moment we found each other was the same moment we were knocked to the ground…literally.


ALSO AVAILABLE


#1 Deception in the Truth


US: https://amzn.to/2Z20UEq
UK: https://amzn.to/3C41e47
CA: https://amzn.to/2Z54X3m
AU: https://amzn.to/3pielen

Free in Kindle Unlimited

#2 Hiding from the Truth


US: https://amzn.to/3AaeINl
UK: https://amzn.to/3JFvuah
CA: https://amzn.to/3PkANNC
AU: https://amzn.to/3QBSSaZ
Universal: https://bit.ly/3pO9jcl

Free in Kindle Unlimited

#3 Burning for the Truth

US: https://amzn.to/3ILR7a9
UK: https://amzn.to/3Ie48rh
CA: https://amzn.to/3SeZDBn
AU: https://amzn.to/3xyuhw4
Universal: https://bit.ly/44nKbrZ

Free in Kindle Unlimited


AUTHOR BIO

A.B. Medley lives in Tennessee with the love of her life and two sons. Her husband stole her heart when she was sixteen and their relationship is one of those meant to be love stories you find in magazines and novels.

She is a dental hygienist who loves to read and has always dabbled in writing. When she’s not making people’s smiles shine, she enjoys belting out songs with her boys, dancing, raspberries, baseball, and anything vintage. Like any proper Tennessean, Sundrop is her drink of choice.

She loves her family and friends fiercely and believes in always chasing your dreams.

Deception in the Truth is her debut novel—but now she’s hooked, and there’s more to come.


AUTHOR LINKS

Website: http://www.abmedley.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorabmedley
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/440778644465657
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/abmedley
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ab_medley
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/abmedleyauthor
TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@abmedleyauthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/A.B.-Medley/e/B09BHXJP11
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21798630.A_B_Medley
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/abmedleyauthor
BookBub: http://www.bookbub.com/authors/a-b-medley


GIVEAWAY

There is a giveaway for a $20 Amazon gift card

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba3ffd552863

EXCERPT REVEAL – I Could Never by Penelope Ward


Title: I Could Never
Author: Penelope Ward


Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Forbidden Romance/Enemies to Lovers
Release Date: August 21, 2023

BLURB

From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward comes a new forbidden, enemies-to-lovers story…

It all started with an unexpected phone call.
Two years after my fiancé passed away in an accident, his father died suddenly, leaving Brad’s adult, special-needs brother with no one to care for him.
The next thing I knew, I was on a cross-country drive to New Hampshire where I’d be moving in to look after Scottie until I could get him into a group home.
The last thing I ever expected?
I wouldn’t be taking care of him alone.
Josh Mathers, my fiance’s best friend—who also happened to be my sworn enemy—insisted he was the better person for the job. He told me to go back to California, and I told him where he could stick that demand.
Our disdain for each other wasn’t anything new. It dated back to a text I’d accidentally read years ago.
We hated each other. But we both loved Scottie, so neither of us budged.
Now we were living together in a tiny house—with one available bedroom. Thank goodness it was only temporary.
Over time, I realized the broody jerk I thought I knew was different than I’d imagined.
I found myself slowly growing attached to someone I once considered the enemy…and growing attracted to him.
Sure, both of us were guilt-ridden over Brad. We were also two grown people with pent-up frustration toward one another—stuck in a cabin in the woods.
But this was Josh.
I could never.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186725244


PRE-ORDER LINKS

Apple Books: https://apple.co/46Fh2Kg
Paperback: https://amzn.to/3pIYPeg
B&N: https://bit.ly/3QCsiSb
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3s6FXqz
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3OQoyLs
Audible: https://bit.ly/47le9yy
Amazon Audio: https://bit.ly/47lefWW

Sign up to be alerted when it goes live on Amazon here: https://fave.co/2KoLPUN
**No Amazon e-book preorder. Will go live on/around release day.

EXCERPT

Copyright © 2023 by Penelope Ward

Josh sat at the table, casually having coffee as I walked into the house after my drive home from the salon. The smell of cigarettes emanated from him. He hadn’t smelled like that since the first day he arrived.
“Where’s Scottie?” I asked.
“In his room,” he answered without making eye contact.
I stated the obvious. “You smell like smoke.”
“Must be the firewood.” He brought his mug to his mouth.
“Bullsh*t. The pellet stove doesn’t emit any fumes.”
“Yeah. I caved and had one. Big deal.” He pointed toward the door. “I did it outside, though, while keeping an eye on Scottie through the window.”
“You’d been doing so well. What happened?”
He still wasn’t looking at me, and instead stared straight ahead. “Just human, I guess.”
Then something in front of him on the table caught my attention: pieces of ripped pages piled atop…my journal.
A rush of adrenaline shot through me. “Why do you have that?”
“It’s apparently your diary.”
“I’m quite aware of that.” My heart began to pound. “You were snooping in my room?”
He shot daggers at me. “Think, Carly. Of the two guys in this house, who is the one more likely to have been ransacking your room?”
“You were supposed to be watching him while I was at the salon,” I yelled.
“God forbid I take a piss in peace. Is it not bad enough that I’m showering with him now? Getting my balls tugged?”
I wanted to laugh, but this moment was far from funny.
“Scottie ripped those pages out?”
“The notebook is bright orange, like his iPad cover. Probably caught his attention. The drawer next to your bed was open, so he must have gone in there. I assume that’s where you kept it. Admittedly, I’d been letting him hang out in your room, but you sometimes do, too. I went to check on him, make sure he wasn’t doing anything bad, and found those pages strewn about.” A vein popped in his neck.
Josh was angry. Why? I should’ve been the angry one.
“Did you read it?”
“I only happened to see what was on the pages he ripped. I didn’t read anything else once I figured out what the hell it was.”
This is bad. Starting to sweat, I asked, “But how much did you see?”
He stood up from his seat and slowly approached me. With each step he took toward me, I took one back. When we could go no farther, he placed his arms on either side of me, leaning his hands against the wall. And I forgot how to breathe.
Fear. Arousal. Embarrassment. You name it, I was feeling it right now. Every emotion hit me at once.
His breath grazed my face. “How much did I actually see?” He paused. “Enough to know you think I’m an evil pig.”
Ugh. No. Now his anger made sense.
When he backed away, I walked over to the ripped pages on the table and sifted through them.
“It’s the last one, for reference,” he noted.
I read what I’d written the other night.


AUTHOR BIO


Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.

She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.

With over two million books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over thirty books. Her novels have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.


AUTHOR LINKS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/penelopewardauthor
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PenelopesPeeps
Instagram: http://instagram.com/PenelopeWardAuthor
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@penelopewardofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PenelopeAuthor


OTHER BOOKS BY PENELOPE WARD

Toe the Line

US: https://amzn.to/3xRmdH5
UK: https://amzn.to/3xQxLds
CA: https://amzn.to/3m9DXul
AU: https://amzn.to/3m9rZkN
B&N: http://bit.ly/3lQ0RHn
Kobo: http://bit.ly/3IdxLsX
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3kvNNpO
Google Play: http://bit.ly/3KlqkTg
Audio: https://adbl.co/40Oh3J0

Moody

US: https://amzn.to/3K8ht53
UK: https://amzn.to/3px0lwv
CA: https://amzn.to/3wfUFL1
AU: https://amzn.to/3Cjzvzt
B&N: https://bit.ly/3Aq6twM
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3QH6NfC
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3uRdDXM
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3C7pMMm
Audio: https://adbl.co/3P1L3dr

The Aristocrat

US: https://amzn.to/3yoPp65
UK: https://amzn.to/3js1bYR
CA: https://amzn.to/3kIPGMq
AU: https://amzn.to/3mPEkZt
B&N: https://bit.ly/3D3qKHK
Kobo: https://bit.ly/3AQ5hjs
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3iigYYL
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2XB7QaN
Audio: https://adbl.co/3g9L7Jh

See more books here: http://www.penelopewardauthor.com/books

EXCERPT REVEAL – Ablaze (Elements of Rapture Series #3) by Swati MH

Title: Ablaze

Series: Elements of Rapture Series #3

Author: Swati MH

Release Date: August 31, 2023

Genre/Tropes: Brother’s Best Friend, Friends to Lovers, One Bed/One Night, Firefighter, Age Gap

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194025630-ablaze

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/ablaze-elements-of-rapture-book-3-by-swati-mh

Cover Design: Cover Me Darling

NOTE: The discreet cover will only be available on paperback, the hot man cover will be for both ebook and special edition paperback.

Blurb:

Nine years . . . That’s how long I’ve secretly loved my brother’s best friend. A man who fights fires for a living but sets me ablaze with nothing but a cocky grin.

Dean Meyer has made it clear that we’re just friends–best friends. So when we get stranded in an epic snowstorm, sharing one bed in a roadside motel, what could go wrong?

Everything.

We may have blurred the lines over the past nine years, but we’d never crossed them. Not the way we did that night. 

He promised nothing would change. That he’d forget every kiss and every touch, every whimper and every moan. He promised we’d walk out the door and go back to the way things were.

He promised . . . but he lied.

And now, a year of missed calls and unanswered texts later, we find ourselves forced back together again. 

Will the fire still burn between us, or did that one night’s blaze leave us with nothing but ashes?

PreOrder Links:

Universal: https://mybook.to/Ablaze_SwatiMH

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BXVQYKLH

Excerpt :

Prologue: Dean – Present Day

Embers dart up into the breeze as the fire crackles like an old staticky radio. The scent of burning logs entangles with the familiar perfume of towering pines and moss tickles my senses. It’s a scent that should relax me. A scent I’ve known for so long, I’d sometimes pretend I could smell it, only to be able to drift off to sleep.

Today, though, it seems foreign, completely wrong and unwelcomed. A scent that’s captured me in a chokehold so I can neither inhale it nor heave it out. 

It’s just stuck.

Taking another sip of my beer and placing the bottle in the sand, I strum her favorite melody on my guitar, Storms by Fleetwood Mac. The melody she taught me to play at ten when she gifted me my first guitar. 

It’s still hard to believe she’s gone, the earth settling her in, wrapping her in its embrace for eternity. It’s hard to believe I won’t be exchanging new recipes and old songs, new expressions and old memories with her ever again. The woman I gave my heart to only minutes out of the womb almost forty years ago–the one who raised me right along with my mother. The grandmother who was so much more than her title. 

My brother, Darian, throws a small stick into the fire before leaning back on his Adirondack chair and entangling his hand with his wife, Rani’s. He might only be mine and Garrett’s half-brother, but I’d caution anyone who said we didn’t have the same blood running through our veins. He may not have been Grams’ grandson, but she treated him just the same. “I still remember when I spent part of a summer here when I was eight or nine. Every single night, your grandparents would watch WWE religiously.”  

Garrett chuckles but my chest tightens with memories of Grams and Grandpa exchanging their picks for who’d win the match. No one loved wrestling more than Grams, and no one could convince her it wasn’t real. 

I still remember how she’d have dinner prepared extra early on nights when her favorite wrestlers were going to be on. Garrett and I spent so many of our childhood summers at this lake house, sitting knees-crossed on the couch, snuggled on either side of her. We’d cheer and boo right along with Grams, even though we knew the whole match was rigged.

“She was a kooky little thing.” I try to chuckle, but it comes out all wrong with a choked inhale. I’m just about to take another swig of my beer to soothe the sand inside my throat when her soft hand grasps mine. 

Her. The fucking enigma I’ve spent nine years of my life trying to crack. 

The woman who packed up her things and got ready to leave without so much as a discussion with me–the man she claims to be her best friend. The woman who set my heart ablaze the same day she quelled the pyre. The woman who changed me day-by-fucking-day, just to unravel me in one fucking night.

A night she told me to forget, to chalk it up as a blip in our history, a moment–or rather, six fucking hours–of lowered inhibitions and bad decisions. A night that’s replaced the scent of burning logs and pine that used to help me drift off to sleep. Because if I can’t have the source, then the memories will have to suffice.

I pull my hand from her grasp, blinking back tears. 

Loss. The fucking loss of it all. 

My two best friends. A woman I just buried, and a woman whose touch I can’t bury, no matter how hard I try.

We’ve shared a room together for the past four days we’ve been at Grams’s lake house, and even though I knew we should talk–something that used to be as natural as blinking or breathing–I shut her down each time. 

Because she tried. She tried to talk to me, to tell me whatever her fucked-up reasoning was for not being back home–with me–but I couldn’t listen to the same bullshit again. So, aside from the times she held me in her arms, letting me mourn my grandmother while soothing me with her soft whispers well into the morning, we haven’t spoken a single word.

Because, really, there’s nothing to say, is there? 

How could there be when she said it all so clearly that day?

Rani yawns before telling us she’ll see us in the morning when we’re all ready to head back home, and Darian follows after her like the lovesick puppy he is. Meanwhile, Garrett and Bella whisper God knows what to each other across from me on the other side of the fire. My twin brother might have married the woman sitting in his lap on a drunken whim, but the only thing I’ve seen him drunk on over the past four years is her. 

Mala shifts in her chair before standing, her bare legs covered with goosebumps. No matter what the weather is, the woman has always had a vendetta against pants. She pulls the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt over her hands and wraps her arms around her chest. “I think I’m going to take a little stroll around the beach.” 

I watch her leave as the breeze picks up her shiny black hair–hair that looks and feels like spun silk. Her sneakered feet make small indentations in the sand as her hips sway with a lilt of their own. 

Garrett and I exchange a glance, a silent message spoken and heard only by us. One that urges me to stop being the idiot he thinks I’m being. 

But he has no clue. No one does. 

It’s not that I can’t tell him–hell, he and Darian would be the first ones I’d tell if I committed murder and hid the body–but some fears can’t be voiced. Some fears are for you to grapple with all on your own.

I pluck the guitar strings a few more times before the weight of the breeze threatens to snuff the oxygen inside my lungs. Placing my guitar on the sand, I lean it against my chair and give my brother a nod before running after her. 

The stars twinkle like a dusting of diamonds in the moonlit sky, the ripples in the lake overpowering the crackles of the fire behind me. 

It doesn’t take long to find her, sitting on the beach with her bare knees drawn close to her chest, wrapped inside her covered arms like a blanket. I know she’s cold, but for as long as I’ve known her, she’s preferred it that way, claiming heat has always felt too suffocating to her. 

I suppose I can’t blame her, especially not when you’ve lived through the horror she’s experienced.

As if she can feel me, she turns to watch me walk toward her before a wisp of hair gets caught between her lips and she pulls it off to tuck it behind her ear, darting her gaze away from mine. 

“You promised you wouldn’t run away,” I start. “You promised to–”

“No, Dean.” She shuffles to her feet quicker than I would have thought possible given how cold she looked. “You fucking promised. You promised nothing would change. You promised that night wouldn’t affect us. Remember that? But it did, didn’t it? It changed everything! And all the years prior to that, when you told me you couldn’t, wouldn’t mess up what we have . . . or should I say, what we had?” She points between us. “What happened to that promise, huh?” She looks over at the lake with rage in her eyes. “I waited for you. Eight fucking years I stood on the sidelines, waiting for you . . .”

“Yeah?” I yell. “As if I fucking didn’t? You think you’re the only one who had front-row seats to watch a show you never wanted to see?”

She takes a step closer, her nostrils flaring. “So why didn’t you say anything when you had the chance? Why wait until I was finally moving on?” 

“Moving on? Is that what you call it, sprinkles?” I chuckle mirthlessly. “Because the way I see it, you weren’t moving on; you were running.”

Her eyes sharpen on me. “Yeah, okay, I was running. But have you taken even one moment to consider why? Or is that too hard for you to do, given your brick of a brain?” She seethes. “I was running because I was fucking tired. Tired of waiting, tired of wanting and wishing–” 

I heave in a shaky breath, letting the cold air compress my lungs as I hang on her words for dear life. Words she’s cut off, like if she says them, they’ll float away with the wind. “Wishing for what?”

She shakes her head, wiping her cheek with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, but the moment she does, another tear falls to replace it. “It doesn’t matter.” She chuckles hoarsely. “Why would it matter? I’m not the one who can make it matter. I never have been.”

I close the distance between us, rounding my palms over her biceps and making her look up at me. “Wishing for what, Mala? Say it.”

She sniffles, her tear-stained cheeks shining under the silvery effulgence of the night. Her frown intensifies as she whispers, “For it to be me.”

Author Bio:

Swati MH is a Texas raised contemporary romance author living in the Bay Area with her very own book husband and two beautiful daughters. When she’s not writing stories full of humor, heart, and heartbreak, she’s likely thinking about doing so . . . preferably while holding a glass of wine. 

Social Media Links:

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RELEASE BLITZ – Son of a Peach by Claire Hastings

Son of a Peach by Claire Hastings

Peaches, Beaches, and a whole lot of misunderstanding…this hero has his work cut out for him!

The local chocolatier is his exact opposite and someone he should stay away from, but he can’t. There’s no harm in a little fling, right?

Readers who enjoy instalove and fun in the sun romance will love Son of a Peach by Claire Hastings, a steamy, small town, oppositesattract, grumpy/sunshine romance.

Buy Now or Read FREE with KindleUnlimited!

Amazonhttps://geni.us/SonofaPeach

Blurb:

Peaches are my life.
I’m talking about the sweet, fuzzy fruit that represents my home state of Georgia—not the emoji that most people use for a different peach. If you know what I mean…
When there’s the chance to show off my peaches at a Christmas-themed island for the Peach on the Beach festival, it’s a no-brainer.
Then I arrive in Candy Cane Key.
Turns out, they aren’t celebrating my favorite fruit. Nope. This event is about that other type of peach.
To make matters worse, I can’t stop thinking about the event organizer, the local chocolatier—Tizzy. And that’s exactly what she’s worked my insides into.
The strawberry blonde wild child is my exact opposite in every way. Someone I know I should stay away from. Yet, I can’t.
There’s no harm in a little fling, right?

Son of a Peach is an opposites attract, insta-love, fun in the sun novella about an uptight horticulturist and a happy-go-lucky chocolatier with a guaranteed HEA.

Add to Goodreadshttps://bit.ly/3JNEOKt

Excerpt

Copyright 2023 Claire Hastings

“See, not so hard.” 

Maybe this isn’t, but my dick… 

“It’s not dirt,” I say, repeating the motions, “but I can see how this would be fun.” 

“Dirt is not more fun than chocolate.”  

I stop dead, chocolate fork held in midair, Oreo precariously perched on it. She cannot be serious. Then again, of course this free spirit of a woman would think that.  

“Dirt is basis for all life. From dirt you came and to dirt you shall return,” I paraphrase. I can practically hear the preacher back home from Hickory Hills Baptist rolling his eyes for getting that piece of scripture wrong. The meaning is still there though.  

“Maybe, but…chocolate gives life meaning,” she counters.  

“Does it though?” 

Dipping her finger into the bowl, she scoops out some of the melted goodness before running her finger along her lips, then sucks all the chocolate off. My dick surges and I swallow hard, wishing that were me she was licking. 

Fuck, I need to get it together… 

“It does. Besides, doing this with dirt is less fun.” 

I don’t have time to ask, “doing what.” Tizzy’s too quick with the spatula, flicking it at me, sending chocolate flying. It’s warm as it hits my skin, catching me off guard. I scoff, unable to believe she just did that. Well, two can play this game. 

Grabbing the fork, I mimic her movements, splattering chocolate across her face. Tizzy gasps, her smile wide. She clearly was not expecting me to retaliate. I laugh, enjoying her reaction and the playful fight that ensues. Back and forth we go, each one flinging bits of chocolate at each other. I can’t remember the last time I did anything like this. Certainly not with food. Mud, maybe. Mud fights were plentiful as children. Anton and I never passed up a chance to enjoy a good puddle. But it’s been years since we did that. Since I really let loose and played. And then I met Tizzy. 

It’s time to up the ante though, the little splatter from the kitchen instruments no longer having the same effect. So I do what any man would do. I go big.  

I dip my whole hand into the chocolate bowl, scooping up as much as I can. I hear Tizzy’s breath hitch, like she knows what’s coming. She doesn’t move though, the impish look on her face turning even more devilish the closer I get to her. I’ve wanted to lick this chocolate off her since the moment she spread it on her lips. Time to create my chance. 

Only, physics has a different idea.  

Stepping forward to close the distance between us, I slip. My legs wobble underneath me and I lunge forward, trying to keep my balance, and fall into Tizzy. The momentum sends us backward into the counter, which thankfully stops us from hitting the ground.  

A second later, both of us trying to catch our breath, I pull back slightly, noticing the placement of my chocolate-covered hand.  

Smack-dab on Tizzy’s boob.

About Claire Hastings

Claire Hastings is a walking, talking awkward moment. She loves Diet Coke, gummi bears, the beach, and books (obvs). When not reading she can usually be found hanging with friends at a soccer match or grabbing food (although she probably still has a book in her purse). She and her husband live in Atlanta.

Author Links:

Website → https://www.clairehastingsauthor.com

Facebook → https://geni.us/ClaireHastingsFB

Reader Group → https://geni.us/ClaireHastingsHideaway

Romance Group → https://geni.us/SteamRoom

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Newsletter → https://geni.us/ClaireHastingsNL

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