The Christmas Carriage and Other Writings of the Holiday Season Blurb Blitz

Blurb:

To celebrate holiday reading, author Alice Jane-Marie Massa invites you to join her on a snowy, imaginary carriage ride featuring her holiday memoirs, short stories, essays, and poetry from her book, THE CHRISTMAS CARRIAGE AND OTHER WRITINGS OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Spanning from Thanksgiving through the new year, this collection includes her remembrances of Hoosier holidays in the 1950s and 1960s.  "The Christmas Carriage" (set in Milwaukee) and "The Puppies of New Year's Eve," along with stories about a military family, two holiday weddings, and a homeless person will warm your heart this winter.  From "Zoe's Christmas Eve" to "Snow Dancers," Alice's poetry provides merry and memorable reading for both adults and children.

With a beautifully festive cover, this book is one you will want to wrap as a holiday gift, as well as a book that you will want to keep beside your chair while you settle into the sparkle and joy of this holiday season.

For additional information about ordering this 101-page book in either print, electronic, audio, or braille versions, please visit the author's web page.

Alice also invites you to visit her weekly blog.

Excerpt:

Somewhere along a snow-covered road on route to Santa Claus, Indiana, I came to a terrible realization--no pretty patent leather shoes were on my feet.  In a burgeoning panic, I told my dad that he had to go back home for my dress shoes because I could not possibly see Santa while I was wearing my house slippers!  My dad tried to explain to me that he could not return home, that the roads were slippery, that we had to arrive in time for Mother's meeting, and that Santa Claus would not mind my wearing boots within which were house slippers.  I was not swayed a bit by his logic.  This time was one of the extremely rare occasions when my wonderful dad did not grant my wish.  I cried real tears.  Nevertheless, that first weekend in December, I did wear my red house slippers, covered by my big red boots, to see the real Santa Claus.  Thankfully, all worked out well.  I do not think Santa had a clue about my footwear:  he still brought me the nice gifts I had shyly requested as I sat upon his knee.

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Author Bio and Links:

Although Alice Jane-Marie Massa has lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for over 25 years, growing up in the rural Indiana town of Blanford (with a population of approximately 400) influenced the subject matter and style of her writing. After earning master's degrees from Indiana State University and Western Michigan University, Alice, still a Hoosier at heart, taught for 25 years, including 14 years of teaching writing and public speaking at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Having retired from teaching English and grading stacks of student papers, she now focuses on her own writing.

Alice invites you to visit her blog where, since January of 2013, she has posted weekly her poetry, essays, memoirs, or short stories. Her writings on Wordwalk frequently focus on her Indiana hometown of Blanford, her four guide dogs, her Italian ancestors, and writing. Additionally, some of her writing pieces have been published in Indiana Voice Journal, Magnets and Ladders, Dialogue, Newsreel, and The ACB Braille Forum, as well as in the anthology Behind Our Eyes: A Second Look.

Away from her desk, Alice enjoys reading, container gardening, and the television program Jeopardy. Since March 21, 1990, Alice's guide dogs have added sparkle, spirit, and independence to her life. Currently, most of all, she is grateful for her long walks with her fourth Leader Dog, Willow (a black Labrador), who is following very well in the amazing pawprints of Alice's beloved first three Leader Dogs—Keller (a Golden Retriever), Heather (a Yellow Labrador), and Zoe (a Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix).

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Omega Team Series Book Blast

Blurb:

Former Delta Force team leader Grey Holden came from a long line of military leaders who believed the important thing was getting the job done, not boosting your ego. They called themselves Omega Men. Athena Madero left the police department angry at all the restrictions she faced as she tried to fight crime. Grey and Athena collided, literally, when both were working a covert investigation, the resolution of which resulted in the birth of The Omega Team. Others will join them as the agency expands its scope of activities to range from hostage negotiation and rescue to industrial espionage to fighting drug cartels to threats to national security. They will be led by Grey and Athena, whose passion for their work is only rivaled by their passion for each other. Welcome to a series that combines high danger with intense passion and heady romance.

         

Kindle Worlds is a publication platform featuring Worlds which are really extended series where authors can write in a particular licensed World. Although they are open to everyone, it works best when the author who owns the World invites authors she believes will be a good fit. Each World has 3 launches per year and many include repeat authors. Often authors write a series within a series-their now 3-story arc within the Kindle World. You can see them all here.

Recon Strong by Krista Ames                  

Dirk Rockwell knew when he left the Marines that he wanted to be in private security. The need to protect had been ingrained in his brain for too many years not to. Lately, however, it was really taxing his nerves. He was used to killing if he needed to, to protect his charge, not step in between a disgruntled husband and wife during a domestic dispute. When he took on the latest assignment to protect a woman who’d snapped one too many secret photographs, he’d only agreed because an old friend had recommended him. Meeting Avery proved to him that not all women needed protection equally.

Avery Hanson lived for the rush of almost getting caught. That’s why she chose freelance photography as a profession. The sticky part was when she did get caught. However, this time wasn’t like the usual quick brush with the local law where she could talk herself out of it with a slap on the hand. She’d somehow gotten mixed up in some nasty hush hush with the federal government. This time, she didn’t just need out of yet another mess, she needed help staying alive.

Without the necessary channels to cover both their asses, Dirk enlists the help of The Omega Team. But will it be enough to keep him from losing his charge and his heart?   

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Author Bio:

Krista Ames was born and raised in Indiana. She now resides in Northern Michigan with the love of her life and their 4 children.

She is a full-time stay-at-home mom and pursues her writing career when she's not chasing kids, cooking or doing laundry.

Krista can be found at www.apassionforromance.blogspot.com and would love to hear from you anytime via krista@kristaames.com               

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Billionaire Ever After Book Blast

Blurb:

Feel the sparks fly off the hot romance and action-driven pages of these EXCLUSIVE TITLES—unavailable separately in ebook format anywhere else!

From sweet to sensual, they’ll satisfy your most indulgent fantasies as you fall in love with an array of billionaire beaus in this contemporary romance collection by some of today’s hottest New York Times, USA Today, and International bestselling authors.

Quench your book-boyfriend addiction with page-turning stories overflowing with decadent luxury, heart-warming love, heated adventure, steamy scenes, and happily-ever-afters.

Featuring billionaires from bad boys to Marines and CEOs to cowboys, this set will take you around the country and jet-setting around the globe with intense, passionate men who always get what they want and fulfill the desires of the women they crave.

Relish each journey in this LIMITED-TIME collection PACKED with novels and novellas that will provide over one hundred hours of reading.

Grab your copy today before these hot billionaires fly off into the sunset!

Stories Include:

Bad Boy Billionaire’s Lady by Mary Hughes

Elizabeth promised a dying man she’d protect his charitable legacy. But how, when the greedy, manipulative sharks on the board want her out? And now the biggest shark of all, the Lovless heir, is coming home.

Rebel Lovless joined the Navy to escape his robber-baron grandfather molding him into a ruthless copy. So when the old man dies, the SEAL returns to give away his billions, only to find surprise charities—and a hostile board tearing at the throat of charity organizer, classy lady Elizabeth Rothschild.

Excerpt:

Just let me escape. I vow never to take a shortcut again.

Feet pursued Elizabeth. A hand clamped onto her coat. Her pulse kicked into overdrive.

“Where d’you think you’re going?” Skullcap dragged her to a stop.

She swung around, messenger bag first, the kitten carrier clamped to her body.

The mugger grabbed her by the lapels—and tore open her coat beneath the carrier strap.

She sucked in a shocked breath. Inhaled a wash of male stink. She recoiled automatically, heart hammering. The kitten released a terrified screech.

“Well, well.” The mugger dragged her back, his foul excitement pouring off him. “What’s this?”

She struggled against Skullcap’s hold, impotently, horrified that the situation had careened so out of control. Her blood thundered in her ears as she tried desperately to think of a way out…or was that the sound of a motor?

Suddenly, the hard roar of a powerful machine filled the mouth of the alley.

Beyond the muggers, a motorcycle skidded into the narrow way, its harsh engine reverberating against the buildings.

The goon spun toward the intruder. Freed, Elizabeth clutched the carrier and stumbled back, her pulse racing frantically.

The bike tore down the pavement and squealed to a stop a few feet from the mugger.

A big, helmeted, leather-clad man sat easily on the low-slung seat. Scuffed, shitkicker boots rested flat on the pavement.

Her panted breaths rasped in her ears. The mugger’s more dangerous biker pal? God, and she’d thought things couldn’t get worse.

One boot rose to toe the stand down. With a fluid lift of his muscular leg, the man dismounted easily, unfolding to almost a giant’s height. Face completely covered by a mirrored visor, he stood before them without a word.

More dangerous? Try deadly.

Elizabeth’s breath came in frosted little pants. Was she rescued, or in even more trouble than before?

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Ruthless Billionaire by Cheryl Phipps

Billionaire, Benjamin Knight, needs a ‘date’ for his sister’s wedding. About to call an agency he literally falls over a promising candidate.  Uncharacteristically, he offers the cute and feisty red-head the job without knowing anything about her. A short time later Ben’s thinking this might be a huge mistake.

With her florist shop burned down, Jenna Molloy is desperate for money. Working for a sexy billionaire seems like a lifeline that could even be fun, until the wedding of the year turns into a disaster. Except for that one night of passion. Will one night be enough?

Excerpt:

"Oww! Watch where you're going, buddy."

Ben rolled to his side and found one of the workers cross-legged on the temporary floor, with a handful of decorations and a glint in her deep green eyes.

"Buddy?"

She shrugged. "I don't know your name."

"Ben."

"Well, Ben. I’m hardly invisible, and you nearly squashed me."

"Sorry, I had no idea that anyone was there."

“Fine.”

It clearly wasn’t fine, as she snubbed him and went back to making decorations. She leaned to the side to fetch scissors and some kind of raffia from a table. Her shirt lifted to flash a portion of a very trim stomach, and her jeans hugged her backside. With her hair tied in a ponytail, she was both cute and sexy. She stretched once more, and he was leaning more to the sexy part, about then.

"You're staring, Ben."

"Yeah, I guess I am.” He got to his feet as a compelling idea burst into his brain. “Are you a nice person?"

"Pardon?" she screwed up her button nose.

"Do you eat with a knife and fork, and are you pleasant to be around?"

Her eyes widened. "Are you having some sort of breakdown? Should I call someone?"

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Damaged Love by Cristiane Serruya

When Richard lost his legs, a white lie made sure Giulianna, his fiancée, didn’t find out about it.

Two years later, Giulianna is hired to cater a wedding at Richard’s manor and the last thing she wants is to see Richard.

One lie tore them apart, breaking both their hearts. And even the truth might not be enough to mend their damaged love.

Excerpt:

From the adjoining room, a loud, brittle sound of glass shattering startled Giulianna, but what made her heart lodge midway in her throat was the grave, deep, gut-wrenchingly familiar tone of Richard’s voice.

She thought she had prepared herself to meet him; the man she had dated and loved for years—and still loved—but just the sound of his voice suffused her mind with anger, hurt, and longing.

A pull of awareness coursed through her. Her nipples suddenly tightened and she curled her fingers around the knife she was holding. The two years away did nothing to chase him away from her mind.

“Babe alert on max,” whispered Henriette.

She didn’t need her assistant’s alert to know who had just entered the large and modern kitchen where she was working. She could feel Richard’s magnetic presence demanding that she look at him.

Instead, she focused on assembling all of the tools and ingredients she would need for a fondant-covered confection worthy of a magazine spread. But she couldn’t fail to notice that Christina and Henriette had fixed their hungry gazes on his muscular six-foot-three frame, as if it was hunting season and he was their prey. Even Bella had turned and was staring.

“Jules,” Bella whispered. “He is staring at you. Rather angrily, I would say.”

That made her look up. Only ten feet away, Richard stood with his legs wedged apart, unyielding arms folded across his broad chest.

She wanted to blame the flush across her face on the heat emanating from the oven. But the rapid beat of her pulse confirmed it was one set of impressive royal-blue eyes across the room that was the cause.

If it was possible, he was even more handsome now than the last time she had seen him, more than two years ago. His sand-blond hair had grown from the military buzz and framed his rugged face in a lush mane. He looked broader in the shoulders, which was expected as he had always worked out a lot, but he also looked taller, by at least two inches, which didn’t make any sense, since he was already twenty-seven years old when they started dating.

She licked her suddenly dry lips and looked away.

Focus. It would take yet many hours to do the cake and to set up all the desserts for the four parties and she didn’t have time to waste on a man who had not even cared to break up with her face-to-face.

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Running Wild Blog Tour

Blurb:

This gripping collection of stories - fiction, nonfiction, and narrative poem - will make your imagination run wild! Featuring stories by Sarah Smith Ducksworth, Elaine Crauder, Luanne Smith, Keith R. Fentonmiller, Lisa Montagne, Ann Stolinsky, A.J. O’Connell, Aimee LaBrie, Kristan Campbell, Jack Hillman, Bill Scruggs, Joshua Hedges, Gary Zenker. You will travel alternative planets, run away away like teens in search of adventure, solve a murderous mystery, come to grips with your fears, and much more.

Excerpt from Lisa Montagne’s “The Jumpsuit”:

“The jumpsuit was a thing of beauty. Made of dark-blue, shiny denim, it had an orange zipper that spanned from the crotch to the cleavage. It even sparkled ever so slightly in the sun, like it had been dipped in a vat of finely grained fairy dust. It sported capped sleeves, a wide collar, and bellbottoms. It was worthy of Cher or Liza Minnelli— certainly a back-up singer for Diana Ross. Nonetheless, it made me queasy. But, the jumpsuit also made me feel sexy and daring, which incited an occasional wave of sweaty armpits. In it, I was anxious to flaunt my new body and my new image. Seventh grade, here I come! There was no stopping me. I would no longer be the nerdy, fat kid. I would be a star.”

Why Start Running Wild Press

I’ve been a writer, teacher, editor for nearly two decades. For years I’ve read amazing stories in critique groups or that were submitted to publications for consideration yet they were not published. I discovered so many great storytellers who wrote about topics that weren’t mainstream. The authors wrote between genres or there was something about the story that wasn’t mainstream “enough”. Because of this, the tales didn’t fit into a standard place on a bookshelf and therefore didn’t find themselves in readers’ hands.

Yet the stories were wonderful.

They were moving.

They had great voices and different perspectives.

And they represented what makes us all fantastic – they gave us something to think about, something to feel, something to wonder, they had the potential to make us laugh, to leave us with a sense of awe. They lingered within my psyche long after I read the last sentence.

At Running Wild Press, we want to share these stories with you. We want you to laugh and sing; to experience the protagonist’s highs and lows; to feel the characters pain and relief. To get lost in a page.

We want to entertain and share another world, another dimension, a new experience with you.

With these beliefs and goals as our mantras, we started with an anthology of wildly varying stories – fantasy, romance, humor, nonfiction, narrative poem, literary, horror. All we hope will move you as they moved us.

We bring you the stories that will Make Your Imagination Run Wild.

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Author Bios and Links:

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Elaine Crauder’s fiction is also in Cooweescoowee, The Boston Literary Magazine, The Eastern Iowa Review , and Penumbra. Another story received the Westmoreland Short Story Award. Eleven of her short stories have been finalists or semi-finalists in contests, including finalists in the Tobias Wolff and Mark Twain House contests. ”The Price Of A Pony,” under the title”Christmas the Hard Way,” was a semi-finalist for both Ruminate Magazine’s  short story prize and for the Salem College Center for Women Writers Reynolds Price short fiction award.

Richard D. “Ky” Owen is a lawyer with Goodwin & Goodwin, LLP, in Charleston, West Virginia. He earned a B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University in 1981 and a J.D. from Hamline University in 1984. Coming from a family of writers, he considers himself a “writer by birth.” He is the author of None Call Me Dad and he blogs about parenting and Michigan State sports on his website, www.nonecallmedad.com.

Keith R. Fentonmiller is a consumer protection attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Before graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, he toured with a professional comedy troupe, writing and performing sketch comedy at colleges in the Mid-Atlantic States. His Pushcart-nominated short story was recently published in the Stonecoast Review. His debut novel, Kasper Mützenmacher’s Cursed Hat, will be published March 20, 2017 by Curiosity Quills Press.

Based in Southern California, Dr. Lisa Montagne currently divides her time between writing poetry and prose, teaching writing to (mostly) willing college students, and overseeing educational technology projects and support at Fullerton College. She is also a Swing, Blues, and Argentine Tango dancer, host, DJ, and instructor. She likes to drink Champagne in as many places as she can, including Europe; to read poetry aloud to anybody who will listen; to cook for anybody who is willing to sit down long enough to enjoy her food; to dabble in drawing, painting, and photography; and to read anything plopped in front of her, ranging from D.H. Lawrence to Vogue magazine. She also likes to watch television and movies, and to imagine how much better she would have produced them herself. She lived in Las Vegas at one time, so she likes to tell people that she was a stripper there. She was really just a graduate student and high school teacher, but it’s more fun to let people wonder. Although rumored to be a direct descendent of Oompa Loompas, Lisa is actually the offspring of a college professor and a circus dwarf. You can find some more of her writing at archive405.com and lisamontagne.com, and see evidence of her adventures @lisamlore on Instagram.

Ann Stolinsky is a Pennsylvania-based word and game expert. She is the founder and owner of Gontza Games, an independent board and card game company, and three of her games are currently in the marketplace: “MINDFIELD, The Game of United States Military Trivia”; “Pass the Grogger!”; and “Christmas Cards.”

Check out her website at www.gontzagames.com. She is also a partner in Gemini Wordsmiths, a full-service copyediting and content creating company. Visit www.geminiwordsmiths.com for more information and testimonials. Ann reviews books for Amazing Stories Magazine, an online sci-fi magazine which can be found at www.amazingstoriesmag.com, and is an Assistant Editor for Red Sun Magazine, www.redsunmagazine.com. Her most recent publishing credit is a poem in the Fall 2015 issue of Space and Time Magazine. She is a graduate of the Bram Stoker award-winning author Jonathan Maberry’s short story writing class.

Lisa Diane Kastner is a former correspondent for the Philadelphia Theatre Review and Features Editor for the Picolata Review, her short stories have appeared in magazines and journals such as StraightJackets Magazine and HESA Inprint. In 2007 Kastner was featured in the Fresh Lines @ Fresh Nine, a public reading hosted by Gross McCleaf Art Gallery. She founded Running Wild Writers and is the former president of Pennwriters, Inc. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University, her MBA from Pennsylvania State and her BS from Drexel University (She’s definitely full of it). Her novel THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS was shortlisted in the fiction category of the William Faulkner Words and Wisdom Award and her memoir BREATHE was a semi-finalist in the nonfiction category of the same award. Born and raised in Camden, New Jersey she migrated to Philadelphia in her twenties and eventually transported to Los Angeles, California with her partner-in-crime and ever-talented husband. They nurture two felonious felines who anxiously engage in little sparks of anarchy.

Aimee LaBrie works as a communications director at Rutgers University. She earned her MFA in fiction from Penn State, and her MLA from University of Pennsylvania. Her short story collection, Wonderful Girl, was awarded the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction and published by the University of North Texas Press in 2007. Her second collection of stories, A Good Thing, placed as a finalist in the BOA Short Fiction Contest. Her short stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in Pleiades, Minnesota Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Permafrost, and other literary journals. In 2012, she won first place in Zoetrope’s All-Story Fiction contest. You can read her blog at www.butcallmebetsy.blogspot.com.

Kristan Campbell is a short story writer born in Washington, D.C. but has only visited her grandmother there during some of the summers of her childhood. She’s more familiar with Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris than her native city and aims to weave her experiences in those places into tales based on places and people that are out of the ordinary. She studied Journalism at Temple University (what seemed like a practical approach to writing at the time) and Comparative Literature at Hunter College (which seemed like a fun idea at the time) before accepting that she should have been an English major all along. Kristan completed her B.A. in English at Temple University in 2010 and an MFA in Fiction at Fairfield University in 2016. She’s currently attempting to eke out a living doing freelance editing with the help of her cat, Fishy, who manages her desktop printer with enthusiasm.

Bill Ed Scruggs spent his younger years meeting the Southern mountain countryside and exploring the people, taking time out as needed for work in various occupations. He lives (temporarily) in Connecticut and has one child, a psychiatrist. Presently he is reconstructing his memories and imaginings in a series of novels and short stories (Facebook page Foothills Fiction - Bill Ed Scruggs) Warrensburg is a fictional photo of a country village in the illumination of fireflies.

Joshua Hedges is a debut Science Fiction writer from Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from The University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Computer Science. When he’s not writing stories or code, he ventures outdoors with his wife and three-year-old son to hunt dragons in the forest.

Gary Zenker is a marketing professional whose days are filled with creating business and marketing plans, and writing ad copy and media content. By night, he applies his imagination to flash fiction tales that cross genre and focus on revealing various facets of human nature. He is the author of Meetup Leader, a book on running successful groups; is editor and publisher of 19 books in the rock & roll Archives series; and co-author of Says Seth, a humorous collection written with his then six-year-old son. His work has earned a dozen marketing awards and placed in four writers’ contests, including a first place recognition from Oxford University Press. He founded and continues to lead two writers groups in southeastern PA, assisting others to develop their skills and achieve their writing goals. 

Zenker's Website

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Lyrical Press Paranormal Romances Blurb Blitz

Reckoning Blurb:

The Great Extinction, the prophesied war between the humans and the Supernaturals, has begun.

Born a Supernatural, Juliet Sawyer has the ability to save the world from disaster. But after barely escaping the underground, power-sucking prison known as the Void, she finds herself on the brink of death and in the middle of a vengeful war. To survive, she’ll have to make a deal with her human captors. But the stakes are raised when she learns the government is holding her sister hostage. To rescue her, Juliet must become a weapon for humanity, fighting against her own kind—including Riley West, the boy she fell deeply in love with—and by whom she was abandoned.

Forced to desert Juliet, Riley is on a mission to capture the human’s president and bring her to the Supernatural’s king. But if he fails, there will be no stopping the Night of Grief, which will unleash horrors capable of destroying humans and Supernaturals alike. With battle lines drawn, amid a flurry of secrets and betrayals, can Juliet and Riley rescue their love as well as all life on Earth? Or will someone get caught in the crossfire?

Ever Bound Blurb:

1879, Tennessee. A farmhand on the vast Rollins estate, handsome young Colby Kinsley makes the mistake of his life when he becomes briefly entangled with conniving Grace Rollins, the plantation owner's beautiful but unstable daughter. Yet matters become even more complicated when he finds himself falling truly in love with Grace's clever younger sister, Annabeth...

Intent on escaping her darkly troubled father and her melancholy home, Annabeth is also determined to avoid Colby. Yet she is still drawn to his quick wit and many talents. And when he performs an act of astounding courage, she can no longer deny her true feelings for him…just as her sister cannot hide her jealous rage. Grace will do anything to destroy the blossoming romance—even invoke dark, powerful supernatural forces. And as her dangerous machinations begin, the passions of all three are set on a tragic course—with a conclusion that will echo across lifetimes…

Never Been Bitten Blurb:

Amid the lore of 19th century England, even a woman of science isn’t immune to the charms of a wickedly handsome, dangerously sexy vampire…

The devilishly seductive, irresistibly rakish Mr. Macane is ravishing all the ladies of the ton—despite the fact that he is penniless, untitled—and believed to be a vampire. Hired to disprove such an absurd claim, the skeptical Miss Elspeth Ramsay does not expect to tremble in his presence—until the graze of his teeth on her neck ignites an appetite of her own, and she finds herself biting him back! Surely this sudden bloodlust can only mean danger for her family and her heart—or a love for eternity...

Wicked Burn Blurb:

Simone Brightston knows she can beat the rap her enemies are pinning on her. An Irish witch is nobody's fool, and she didn't get to her position on the high council without serious power. But her cousins want her to hide out—and they somehow convinced her arch nemesis to play getaway driver.

Of all the men she's known, Nikolaj Veis is the hardest to intimidate. With his demon-dark eyes and his inscrutable beauty, he's as desirable as he is dangerous. And he knows better than to underestimate Simone. So when he pulls up on a roaring bike and tells her to climb on or fight it out, she grabs a handful of jacket and holds on tight. Running from the law may not be the smartest plan. But when it comes to Nick, hot pursuit and a blazing fast ride are exactly what Simone's looking for. 

Excerpt from Reckoning:

I’d forgotten the execution of revenge always brings a reckoning. Revenge was the reason for my predicament. I’d told myself I was following my destiny to save the humans, but that was a lie. In truth, I’d wanted to get even with the leaders of our world for murdering my father.

I choked back a sob as I fought the despair threatening to overwhelm me. I needed to save my little sister, Maisy, but I was trapped, unable to get to her. She and the other mixed-blood children with her depended on me to protect them from the humans and the Supernaturals and instead I was deep in the bowels of the Void. It was a triple D place to be. Dark. Dank. Dangerous.

The cold, dark, stone walls of this Supernatural prison were designed to absorb our power. Robbed of our abilities, we were as weak as the humans.

Careful to avoid the loose rocks dotting the ground all around me, I struggled to my feet, worry over my sister’s safety driving me to move my aching body. Shut down the fear. Shut down the pain. Do whatever it takes to get out.

A noise to the left caught my ear.

Riley moved haltingly toward me. Even in blue jeans and a T-shirt, his royal bearing was unmistakable. He drew his arm tight against his body as he favored his ribs. Failure and guilt struck again, smacking me in the face. He’d had to save me and I hated that. Hated leaning on him when I knew what I would be called on to do to him. Falling in love with Riley wasn’t logical, but when does the heart ever listen to logic? It simply looks into the eyes of the other person, into their soul, and falls. The idea that once he knew my secret he might not ever forgive me, much less love me back, chilled me to the bone. Could I handle seeing the love disappear from his eyes?

The tip of his black Converse caught on a rock and he pitched forward, throwing his hands out to catch himself. The muscles in his arms flexed and he rested his forehead against the wall for a second, shaking his head as if dazed, which I didn’t doubt he was. The fall into the opening from the castle above us was a neck breaker. We’d been lucky to live through it.

Riley had risked his life and given up his freedom for me. By jumping into the Void with me in his arms, he’d found a way to stop my own power from killing me.

I made a sound that was half laugh, half sob as a conversation with my late father popped into my thoughts. Use your power for good. Remember your purpose, Juliet.

Sure, Dad, but what good is having power when it comes with a nasty side effect like death? I didn’t have an autonomic fail-safe to govern the temperature of my power like all the other Supernaturals did. Every time I used my power, I risked being barbecued from the inside out. When my last manmade fail-safe blew, I’d almost died and Riley had saved me then too.

I blinked back tears and smiled when Riley reached me. Putting my hand on his side, I checked the area he’d favored, and my hand trembled as I remembered the intimacies we’d shared.

“I’m okay,” he said. I knew the words for the lie they were. He was far from okay physically and emotionally. His handsome face was covered in bruises, his skin scraped raw in places. Wounds caused when his own father had tried to kill him. Riley reached for my hand, faking a smile. Even in his battered state, he was still incredibly hold-my-breath hot, making me forget everything I wanted to say at that moment.  

Author Bios and Links:

Odessa Gillespie Black

Odessa Gillespie Black lives in the beautiful North Carolina foothills with her husband, four children, Chihuahuas Little Bit and Rico, and rescued Lab and Pit mix, Mo. When not chasing dogs around the backyard and tackling the daily duties of mother-and-wife-hood, she enjoys watching horror movies, and reading and writing paranormal romance. Readers can visit Odessa’s website and find her on Facebook.

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Ever Bound Buy Links:

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Erica Ridley:

New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley learned to read when she was four, which was about the same time she decided to be a writer when she grew up. Now, Erica writes Regency-set historical romances. Since becoming active in the writing community, all of her manuscripts have finaled in or won various RWA chapter contests. Erica is also the webmistress of her local writing chapter. When not reading or writing romances, Erica can be found riding camels in Africa, zip-lining through rainforests in Costa Rica, or getting hopelessly lost in the middle of Budapest. Readers can visit her website at ericaridley.com.

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Never Been Bitten Buy Links:

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Sonya Weiss:

Sonya Weiss is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and author, including the Stealing the Heart series with Entangled Publishing. She's addicted to great books, good movies, and Italian chocolates. She's passionate about causes that support abused animals and children. Her parents always supported her bringing stray animals home, although the Great Dane rescue was a surprise. Visit her site, find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Reckoning Buy Links:

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Rebecca Zanetti:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti has worked as an art curator, Senate aide, lawyer, college professor, and a hearing examiner - only to culminate it all in stories about Alpha males and the women who claim them. She writes contemporary romances, dark paranormal romances, and romantic suspense novels.

Growing up amid the glorious backdrops and winter wonderlands of the Pacific Northwest has given Rebecca fantastic scenery and adventures to weave into her stories. She resides in the wild north with her husband, children, and extended family who inspire her every day—or at the very least give her plenty of characters to write about.

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Wicked Burn Buy Links:

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