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BLOG TOUR ~ Absinthe by Winter Renshaw
I knew her as the sultry voice blowing up my phone for late night chats about Proust and Hemingway interspersed between the best phone sex I never knew I could have.
We’d never met.
Until the day she walked into my office, her cherry lips wrapped around a candy apple sucker and an all too familiar voice that said, “They said you wanted to see me, Principal Hawthorne?”
The last block of the day is taking for-ev-er, so I ask for a hall pass and make my way around the school, loitering at every drinking fountain and bulletin board. The teacher’s probably wondering where the hell I am, but I’m not afraid to tell him I got my period. That usually shuts them up.
Rounding the corner by the front office, I’m making a beeline for drinking fountain number six when the door swings open and out walks Kerouac.
Or rather, Principal Hawthorne.
We both stop so as not to bump into each other, though he’d be so lucky.
I saw the way he looked at me in his office this morning, the way his body responded to my voice. I knew the instant he started talking that it was him, though it took all the strength I had to ignore his chiseled jaw, dimpled chin, thick, dark hair, and hooded, honey-brown eyes.
Principals are supposed to be old with gray hair, glasses, and dad bods.
They’re not supposed to look like fucking supermodels.
Our eyes lock, and I smirk. To think, all those times I was talking to this.
This is what was on the other end. That stock photo doesn’t even hold a candle to the striking Adonis standing before me. No wonder he doesn’t want to commit. For a man like that, the world is one giant, all-you-can-eat buffet of beautiful women.
“Excuse me,” he says, stepping out of my way like a gentleman.
God, that voice. That gentle, low rasp of a voice. I about creamed my pants when he did the overhead announcements earlier. Almost had to excuse myself from class so I could finish the job in an empty bathroom stall.
It doesn’t help that all anyone can talk about lately is how fucking hot the new principal is. I overheard a group of senior girls earlier making a wager to see who could sleep with him before they went off to college. The winner was to get a thousand bucks.
Ha. Stupid girls.
If they only knew who they were dealing with.
But I’m no better than they are. I know the man that lies beyond the carefully crafted exterior, behind those dark, hooded eyes and that confident stride. The man on the inside is a million times sexier than any of them could begin to imagine.
“You’re excused.” I make my way to the fountain, press the button, and lower my mouth to the jet stream of fresh water. His stare is heavy, weighted, and I’d give anything to know what he thinks when he looks at me.
The halls are empty and quiet. It’s just the two of us.
Across the way a male teacher drones on about World War I and the Lusitania, and when I glance into the classroom, I spot Bree sitting in the front row, gnawing on the tip of her pen as her eyes wander in our direction.
I move out of her line of sight. Ford follows.
“I’d like to talk to you sometime,” he says. “About—”
I rise, turning to him. “About what? Nothing happened.”
He squints, studying me. He must think I’m planning to blackmail him, but he’d be mistaken. While his rejection stung at the time, I’m over it and I’ve got bigger fish to fry—specifically a bottom-feeder by the name of Bree.
“I tried to reach out to you after we last spoke,” he says, keeping his voice down. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. Couldn’t find you on the app.”
“I deleted it.”
His lips press, and he nods. All those long phone calls and messaging sessions this summer, and the man can’t find more than a handful of things to say to me now. He must still be in shock. I can’t say that I blame him. He’d have a hell of a lot more to lose than I would. The stakes are higher for him. I might be legal and an adult, but there isn’t a single red-blooded soul in this entire school district who’d be okay with a principal striking up a sexual relationship with one of his students.
On paper, it would seem atrocious. Scandalous. Disgusting.
But it doesn’t keep me from wishing we could’ve made it work, as insane as that is.
“You know, we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other around here, so let’s do ourselves a favor and get the fuck over what happened,” I say, arms folded as I maintain my icy demeanor. My ego may be bruised, my heart may be longing for him, but I’ll be damned if I run away with my tail tucked like some rejected schoolgirl. “If you’re going to look at me like that every time you see me—”
“I’m sorry.” He won’t stop staring. “I just … I can’t believe it’s you.”
“Believe it.” I begin to walk backwards, distancing myself from him.
He may have closed the door a few weeks ago, but I’m the one who locked it.
Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestselling author Winter Renshaw is a bona fide daydream believer. She lives somewhere in the middle of the USA and can rarely be seen without her trusty Mead notebook and ultra portable laptop. When she’s not writing, she’s living the American dream with her husband, three kids, and the laziest puggle this side of the Mississippi.
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BLOG TOUR ~ REDEEMING THE TEXAS RANCHER by Charlene Sands
About the Book:
Falling out of love with Colby Ryan wasn’t working…
There hasn’t been a woman who’s held Colby Ryan’s heart for long, not since his teenage love went awry twelve years ago. Now, all of a sudden, Dakota Jennings, his longtime family friend and trusted wrangler on the Circle R ranch, is catching his eye. For Dakota’s sake, Colby won’t ever give in to the temptation she poses.
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$35 Amazon Gift Card
Meet the Author:
Charlene Sands is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and historical romance. She has been honored with the National Readers Choice Award, the Booksellers Best Award, The Cataromance Reviewers Choice Award and Romantic Times Magazine’s Best Harlequin Desire Award of 2014. She is an active member of Romance Writers of America. When not writing, she spends time with her four “princesses”, enjoys sunny Pacific beaches and yummy chocolate mocha cappuccinos! Sign up for her newsletter for fun and exclusive prizes at http://www.charlenesands.com and on FB and Twitter!
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BLOG TOUR ~ Tamed by a Tiger (Eternal Mates #13) by Felicity Heaton
Tamed by a Tiger
(Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Book 13)
by Felicity Heaton
Tamed by a Tiger (Eternal Mates Romance Series Book 13)
Felicity Heaton
A snow leopard shifter in the prime of his life, the last thing on August’s mind is tying himself to one female. He welcomes a different one to his bed each night, or at least he had until five months ago when he became alpha. The duties and pressures of running his pride have his libido dead on arrival—until a trip to London to discuss business with the former alpha lands him in the path of a beautiful, bewitching tigress who awakens a passion in him that flares white hot and a need of her that consumes his every moment.
Promised at birth to a male she has never met, Maya has left her pride behind to go to the tiger alpha who is to be her mate, but she can’t leave without saying goodbye to her older brother, Talon. A stop in London at Underworld to see him one last time turns out far different, and far more dangerous, than how she had imagined it when she sets eyes on an alluring crimson-haired stranger who stirs new, unbidden feelings in her, desires that rouse her fiercest and most frightening instincts and demand she stake a claim on him—her fated mate.
Will Maya be strong enough to place her pride and her family’s safety before the desires of her own heart? And will August unravel his feelings for the black-haired beauty before it’s too late and he loses her forever?
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August was finding it impossible to concentrate on anything Cavanaugh was saying about prides and appropriate greetings that should happen at the start of a meeting with one.
He had been doing just fine, scribbling notes like a damn school kid in the pad opened on the round white plastic table in front of him, until forty-three minutes ago, when he had been talking to Cavanaugh about his failing sex life and waxing lyrical about all the females he had bedded in those halcyon days before he had become alpha.
He had caught the most bewitching scent he had ever smelled, an intoxicating blend of cinnamon and snow, spicy but soothing, and had turned his head in time to see the black-haired female from last night standing in the entrance of the kitchen.
Her striking amber eyes had been as round as twin suns as she had stared at him.
The big male who had been with her last night, a wall of muscle and menace with silver hair and icy eyes, had been swift to usher her away, and August had heard him mutter about finding somewhere else.
Ever since then, he had been wondering where this somewhere else was that he had taken her.
“Earth calling August.”
He blinked himself back to Cavanaugh, who sighed as he stood, the legs of his chair scraping on the tiles as he pushed it back.
“You need some coffee?” His cousin crossed the small distance between the table and the basic kitchen to August’s right, plucked the jug from the machine and frowned as he lifted it. It was almost empty. His dark grey eyes shifted back to August. “I can make a fresh pot.”
August didn’t think coffee was going to save him.
He had tried concentrating. Really tried. He looked down at the pad and grimaced at the doodles all over it. His fingers had obviously wandered as much as his mind. He hadn’t taken in anything Cavanaugh had told him.
“I think I need some air.” What he really needed to do was clear his head and evict the dark beauty from it, but that probably wasn’t going to happen.
Something about her had him fired up.
Which was a monumental fucking achievement given the recent death of his libido.
He pushed his chair back, stood, and scrubbed a hand across his tired eyes.
“Give me fifteen?” He looked to Cavanaugh, hoping his cousin would be alright with the break, because he wasn’t going to be much use to him if he couldn’t find his focus again.
Cavanaugh shrugged. “Go for it. I’ll check on Eloise.”
August wanted to pick him up on his choice of words. Check on Eloise? It was pretty crap code for fooling around with his mate. He couldn’t hold it against Cavanaugh though. His cousin should have been in bed, enjoying sleeping with his mate, but here he was teaching August the ABCs of running a pride. If Cavanaugh wanted to use the break to make out with Eloise, that was fine with him.
He nodded and walked out of the room, his feet heavy as he tried to figure out where to go and tried not to think about where Cavanaugh was going.
Five months without sex.
Hadn’t even thought about it.
Not a single urge.
He turned right and followed the corridor, intending to head up the smaller staircase to the roof.
The scent of cinnamon and snow teased his senses.
August followed it through the building, unable to stop himself from tracking her. It led him to the stairs and then downwards, towards the ground floor of the nightclub. Heat bloomed in his blood and his pulse quickened, his senses sharpening as he focused on her scent, homed in on it and ignored everything else.
Hunted her.
Five months, and now he couldn’t think of anything else.
Gods, he wanted her.
He had wanted her the moment he had set eyes on her.
It was just the sudden release from the pressure of being an alpha. That was all. Cavanaugh was right and being away from the pride was doing him good. He felt free again, energised, and back to his old self.
A player again at last.
That was the only reason he wanted the beautiful female who smelled of cinnamon and snow, who set his blood on fire and had his heart beating faster whenever he saw her, and a deep urge to seize her blazing through him.
Hell, if he headed into the club tonight, he would probably want any number of the females who lined the bar, could scratch this itch with his choice of them and be done with it.
Maybe he would scratch the itch a few times.
Make the most out of being away from the pride.
His libido was bound to take a hit again the moment he returned.
He might as well enjoy it.
His feet carried him downwards.
Towards her.
Did she belong to the male he had seen her with? The two were close, and the silver-haired male guarded her as if she was precious to him. It would be just his luck if she was. The first female he had wanted in months, and she belonged to someone else.
A door opened and closed off to his left as the large white room came into view and he glanced there.
The male.
He slowed his pace as the male approached, and nodded as he jogged up the stairs towards him.
The male suddenly stopped. “Have you seen Talon? We were looking for him but we can’t find him or Sherry.”
August had met Talon once, shortly after he had arrived. “The only time I’ve seen Talon, he was on the roof, sunbathing with the pretty bartender.”
The male snarled at him. “That bartender is my brother’s mate.”
Brother. Interesting.
He looked the male up and down, seeing the family resemblance. The male shared Talon’s features, smelled similar in a way, but the scent of the female lingered on him. He wanted to growl at that.
He held himself together, clamped down on that need, and said, “Did you bring your mate to meet your brother?”
The male’s silvery eyebrows rose high on his forehead and then dropped, a crinkle forming between them and a flicker of confusion crossing his pale blue eyes. “Mate?”
“The black-haired female I saw you with.” August tried to say that as casually as he could while the need to rip the male apart warred with a sudden bout of nerves that the male might see right through him and rip him apart instead.
His eyes turned a shade darker blue but shone a little brighter around his pupils. “My sister. We’re just stopping by to see Talon on our way through London.”
Through London?
“Where are you going?” August regretted that question the second it left his lips.
The tiger’s face darkened, his eyes narrowing as he frowned at August, and his voice became a low growl. “That’s none of your business.”
August stood his ground, unwilling to let the tiger intimidate him. The male stepped up to him, his eyes on August’s the whole time, and then huffed and moved on, heading up the stairs.
Moody son of a bitch.
It didn’t stop August from wanting to know where they were going.
He wasn’t sure why he needed to know.
Maybe it was just that itch to fuck she had ignited in him.
He wanted to know her schedule so he knew whether he had time to win her over and bed her.
He looked down to his left.
At a door in the white wall.
A door that would lead to her.
He kept his eyes locked on it as he took the last few steps, as he turned, and as he walked towards it, drawn to it, and to her.
He needed to see her again.
Needed her.
He reached out and gripped the steel handle, and paused, breathed through a sudden rush of feelings, a collision of fear and desire that was foreign and unsettling. Five months without sex wasn’t long enough to dampen his charm, and definitely wasn’t long enough to make him forget all the right moves to make, the ones that would ensure she fell into his arms and into his bed for one wild night with no strings attached.
So why the hell was he on the verge of having a panic attack?
It was just sex. That was all he wanted from her. All he wanted from anyone.
He shoved the door open.
Froze.
Gods.
She was beautiful.
The tiger standing opposite him in the makeshift gym lifted her head and stared at him through bright amber eyes, her pupils dilating as she spotted him.
That feeling ignited again, fiercer than before, sending a hot shiver over his skin.
She dropped the barrel she had been attacking in the middle of the large space and growled at him.
Fired every damn instinct he had and triggered a need to dominate her, to drive her into submission.
August bared his emerging fangs and growled right back at her.
He wasn’t sure whether she would understand the message—that he wasn’t going to submit to her.
She was going to submit to him.
She went deathly still, not a single muscle twitching, her eyes locked on him.
His heart accelerated, his breath coming quicker as he waited.
Waited.
Maybe this was going to be easier than he had thought and she was just going to roll over for him.
Two hundred pounds of tiger suddenly leaped at him.
Maybe not.
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Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince (Only 99c at all retailers!)
Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King
Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar
Book 5: Craved by an Alpha
Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat
Book 7: Taken by a Dragon
Book 8: Marked by an Assassin
Book 9: Possessed by a Dark Warrior
Book 10: Awakened by a Demoness
Book 11: Haunted by the King of Death
Book 12: Turned by a Tiger
Book 13: Tamed by a Tiger
Book 14: Treasured by a Tiger – Pre-order Now!
BLP REVIEW ~ Tracy
LOVED IT!!!
I have to admit that when it comes to book series I generally prefer those that keep to low numbers of instalments but I have a few authors that this doesn’t apply to and Felicity Heaton is without doubt among that small group.
Tamed by a Tiger is the thirteenth book in the Eternal Mates series (and it’s lucky 13 for us, that’s for sure!) Following on from ‘Turned by a Tiger’ which was Talon’s story, we once again meet Maya – his younger sister. Maya is heading out of the pride preparing to travel overseas to marry an alpha she was promised to a long time ago but, while stopping off at Underworld to visit Talon for a final time, she comes across August.
August is a snow leopard shifter with so many trouble on his plate that the last thing on his mind is finding a mate. He has taken over from his cousin as pride alpha and in his role he’s expected to take a partner from the same species so what the hell is he gonna do when he realises that his fated one is a tiger shifter and worse still, she’s hell bent on leaving to mate with some guy she’s never met…
Tamed by a Tiger was a fabulous read. Focused a lot around the idea of loyalty to family and pride the story of Maya and August found both characters dealing with expectations, traditions and the overriding need to ‘do the right thing’ even when it is to the detriment of their own happiness and desires.
The couple had a lot to face and the decisions were not easy. There was confusion, uncertainty and conflict – why did they feel this tie, did it mean what they both thought, was there any way they could be together….. and ultimately, when it came down to loyalty and pride status could they grab the chance to make themselves happy or would they bow to the pressure of ‘doing the right thing’ for everyone else.
I adore the characters that Felicity creates, the worlds that she builds and the pictures she paints with her words. At times you can so clearly ‘see’ what’s going on in the book that you could easily be there watching events unfold! Her drop in visits/meetings with character from previous books in the series keep us up to date with them too which I love.
Full of emotion, heat, downright down & dirty sexy times, a touch of angst, some humour and a little heart bashing, this is another wonderful instalment in the Eternal Mates series and I can’t wait for book 14!!!! 🙂
A definite 5* read in my humble opinion!
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance 
books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you’re a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS | INSTAGRAM
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