Nights of Ink & Blade by Nikita Cassidy blitz with giveaway
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Nights of Ink & Blade
Nikita Cassidy
(The Rift Chronicles, #2)
Publication date: May 9th 2024
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Everything Nova knew about her identity is a lie.
Truth is a scarce commodity on the island. Nova Lennox learned that the hard way.
What was supposed to be a brief stay turned into a dangerous game of survival. More secrets emerged. And the people who hold the information Nova needs–her boyfriend’s parents–are refusing to help.
But there’s someone.
Fae Prince Ramiel–cocky and not exactly her friend. However, he could give Nova what she seeks. She has no choice but to grab onto this opportunity. Instead of leaving the island with her boyfriend to start a new life after the nightmare they endured, Nova embarks on a journey into a realm of magical creatures and unknown danger to find out the truth about her parents. She owes it to her late mother.
But she also fears what she might discover in this treacherous place.
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Start with book 1 – Days of Flesh & Bone – today!
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EXCERPT:
The night was restless once Killian left.
As I lay in bed, sleep eluded me for what seemed like hours on end, and when I was finally able to pass out after taking one of Jasmin’s pills, the nightmare that had been haunting me ever since the encounter with the horde reappeared.
There, in my dream, I could hear the wolves howling, their cries mournful, and the sound was so chilling that I felt shivers all over my body. Something primal within me stirred. An instinct, perhaps. An instinct I didn’t fully comprehend. But the call of the wolves reached out to the deepest part of my being and every nerve ending in me burned in response to it.
Hot!
My skin felt impossibly hot.
I slapped at my wrists, then looked down.
Flames—multicolored and beautiful—licked their way up to my shoulders.
Desperately, I shook my hands, trying to make the fire go out but to no avail. Instead, it seemed to grow so fast that it consumed me whole.
I was burning alive.
I woke up with a gasp, heaving for air and choking on the smoke that didn’t exist.
The first rays of dawn had already broken past the dark of night and were now peeking shyly into my room through the opening between the silly owl curtains. The light danced across the walls happily, announcing yet another sunny day.
As I lay tangled in the sheets, I listened to the house waking up.
First, I heard Uncle Mark getting ready for work.
A little later, Sage got up and left for the bakery.
As much as she hated working in place of her mother, she’d started to pick up some shifts too. Mostly because Jasmin had been out of sorts since Tabby’s death.
Truth be told, Tabby’s death had affected nearly every person on the island. Some suffered quietly like my aunt and some suffered loudly like Tate Cordero.
I wasn’t sure which I was. Perhaps someone in between, who preferred to keep it all inside for as long as possible and then sobbed stupidly into her boyfriend’s shirt until all the tears had run out and her vocal cords were hoarse.
I’d spent way too much time in bed, I realized as I grabbed my cell from the nightstand to check the time. It was the only thing the device was good for inside the house since calls and messages didn’t seem to go through unless I ran to the shed.
The thought of the shed only amplified my desire to speak to Jasmin.
I’d been dragging my feet, guessing what her answers could be.
You’re terrified of the truth, Nova, the voice in my head whispered. Terrified to find out the things you perhaps shouldn’t know.
With determined resolve, I descended the stairs and sought out my aunt. She was stress-cooking and I was greeted by a mountain of pancakes and a pan of hash browns.
My heart was hammering in my chest when I approached the table and sat down.
“Good morning,” she said, not looking at me. “Well…it’s almost afternoon now.” She sighed softly and went on with her task.
“Jasmin, do you think we can talk?” I slipped my hand into the front pocket of my hoodie and felt the photograph as if to make sure it was still there.
Author Bio:
In her past life, Nikita was a cute dragon, who lived in another dimension called Aelaterra in a hut right in the middle of the magical forest. There, she spent her days reading countless books.
Now she’s a human girl who’s ready to tell you stories about her homeland.
GIVEAWAY!
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Feeding My Addiction…
**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**
So it’s another week of behaving for me squeaking in below my goal number yet again with eight new additions to share. After all these years I just may have found a nice balance between feeding my addiction and completely losing all control, who would’ve thought?
As always clicking the covers will take you to the book on Amazon!**
New additions from Netgalley May 5th – May 12th
The magic of Christmas—and a second shot at romance—is in the air in Shelter Springs this holiday season…
Amanda Taylor isn’t a fan of Christmas, but as the owner of a local soap shop, ignoring the holiday season isn’t an option. To forget the pain of Christmases past, Amanda focuses on making the season bright for her customers at the Shelter Springs Holiday Giving Market. But when her beloved grandmother, Birdie, starts dating the dashing new resident of the Shelter Inn retirement community, Amanda smells trouble. Fortunately, Rafe Arredondo, the grandson of Birdie’s charming suitor, is equally dubious of the match. Unfortunately, he’s just as fiery as his grandfather—and Amanda has zero interest in getting burned.
As a single father, paramedic and assistant fire chief, Rafe has more than enough on his plate. Sure, he and Amanda share a common goal in keeping their grandparents apart. Still, that doesn’t mean he should allow himself to feel as drawn to her as he does. Even if she is great with his young son. Even if she does help the burden of his own painful past feel a little lighter… But when their paths keep crossing at the holiday market, it starts to feel like fate, prompting them both to wonder if taking a chance on love might gift them everything they’ve been wishing for.
Jessica Goodman meets The Agathas in this taut, twisty YA thriller set in the glittering world of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, where secrets–and bodies–never stay buried.
For the New Orleans elite, the Les Masques Ball is sure to be the social event of the season―if they can avoid another dead Queen. When debutante Margot Landry was found dead the morning after her reign at last year’s ball, it was a tragedy, but not a shocking one. Margot was a wild child with a self-destructive streak, nothing like this year’s Queen, Lily LeBlanc. With a perfectly poised debutante on the throne, everything is going according to plan…until the ball is hijacked by a mysterious figure in a Jester costume. That night, Lily sends a text to three of the Maids on her royal court―her best friend, Vivian; her boyfriend’s sister, Piper; and April, her former frenemy―asking them all to meet the next morning. But Lily never shows up.
On the surface, these three debutantes don’t have anything in common except their exclusive private school and their ties to Les Masques. But soon, they realize why Lily brought them together: something dark is lurking beneath the glamorous surface of the debutante world, and it might be the reason she disappeared. And the further the girls dig, the more they begin to suspect that Margot’s death may not have been an accident―and that Lily may be next. When the Jester starts threatening to expose their own secrets, this unlikely trio must team up to uncover the monsters behind the Mardi Gras masks―before they’re left with another dead debutante.
On the set of a kitschy reality TV show, staged scares transform into unnerving reality in this spooky ghost story from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sarah Pinsker.
“Don’t talk to day about what we do at night.”
When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as the night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity. But as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents on set and a creepy new coworker force Mara to confront whether the person she’s truly been deceiving and hiding from all along—is herself.
Eerie and empathetic, Haunt Sweet Home is a multifaceted, supernatural exploration of finding your own way into adulthood, and into yourself.
In this atmospheric southern cozy debut, Madeline Brimley returns to the bookstore she inherited, discovering that small towns hold deadly secrets.
Madeline Brimley left small town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she’s left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore, and restart her life, Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges. The gazebo in the back yard is set ablaze and a late night caller threatens to burn the whole store down if she doesn’t leave immediately.
But Madeline Brimley, not one to be intimidated, ignores the threats and soldiers on. Until there’s another fire and a murder in the store itself. Now with a cloud of suspicion falling over her, it’s up to Madeline to untangle the skein of secrets and find the killer before she herself is the next victim.
A small-town baker and a career woman working for a cookie conglomerate get all mixed up in this Christmas romcom, perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and Maggie Knox.
Marketing executive Elena Voss’s newest assignment for Sparkle Cookie, a large cookie conglomerate, was meant to be a much-needed break from her toxic boss and the stressful city. She never expected to get in a public—and embarrassing—argument with a sexy baker in New Hope, Pennsylvania. But the townsfolk aren’t exactly thrilled about a corporate chain bakery coming in to ruin their small town feel.
Lawrence Higgins–and his dog Sugar–have been a beloved staple in New Hope for years. Their bakery specializes in cookies, but with Sparkle Cookie’s upcoming grand opening, he’s worried about rent spikes and stolen customers. Elena wants to write Lawrence off as an opponent she can crush, but his good looks and passion for baking make it difficult to stay professional.
Elena and Lawrence immediately butt heads at a town hall meeting. When a cookie competition makes them join forces, sparks fly, and they find first impressions are often wrong. Can their blossoming connection survive the ensuing cookie war?
When an unexpected inheritance forces two total opposites to work together, Lexie must decide if Theo is going to push her out—or pull her in for the kiss of a lifetime—in this heartwarming holiday novel from the author of Always, in December and One Last Gift
When Lexie learns of her father’s death, she doesn’t know how to feel; they’ve barely spoken in the last ten years. And she’s even more confused when she discovers he’s left her half of his holiday travel company, a successful niche business specializing in trips that explore the holiday traditions of cultures all over the world.
Meanwhile, the other half of the company has been left to her father’s handsome but bad-tempered young executive, Theo. And the will stipulates that the two of them must find a way to run the company together for a year before they decide its fate.
Lexie intends to leave once the year is over, even though, as a wanderer herself, she finds the company’s mission more compelling than she first thought. And a work trip to sizzling Spain reveals a chemistry between Lexie and Theo that is impossible to deny.
There may have been some snap judgments made about each other. But mixing business and pleasure isn’t always a good idea.
From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood…
Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future… together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car crash, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press—the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.
Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium—a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned.
The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter…in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she’s haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn’t her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn’t her real name.
That’s when she finds the first body….
In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong’s full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life–if she can.
Hannah McKinnon, the acclaimed author of the “charming and warm-hearted” (PopSugar) The Summer House, returns with a fresh beach read about a group of outsiders threatening the status quo at an exclusive New England beach club.
Mayhaven is the best keep secret in Massachusetts. Tucked between old cedars and a spring-fed lake, the Mayhaven beach club has long been the ultimate escape to understated exclusivity. It’s the place where Darcy Birch is supposed to be experiencing the best summer of her life, but there are a few things standing in her way. Her high-strung mother won’t stop hovering over her, her father is consumed by his job as president of Mayhaven, where she works as a summer camp counselor and things are not as rosy as they seem, and her neurodivergent little brother is struggling to live with a measure of independence not everyone is ready for.
Then there is the matter of the new neighbors. Flick Creevy, his mother, and stepfather have arrived in town, parking their enormous RV, not to mention all-night music and clouds of marijuana, in the Birches’s perfectly landscaped backyard.
Flick is not interested in the perfect summer or the girl next door. Pushed to get a job at Mayhaven by his mother, who had her eyes on a new life for their family, his own eyes have been opened to the ways of the upper crust. Even though Mayhaven prides itself on being an inclusive association of good New England families with good New England values, the fact remains: either you’re on the inside or the outside.
As the heat of summer increases, it’s soon clear that the members of Mayhaven will have to struggle to stay cool in this sharply written and refreshing new novel that is perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner.
When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips #bookreview #thriller
**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**
Title: When We Were Silent
Author: Fiona McPhillips
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Page Count: 308
My rating: 2 1/2 stars
About the book:
An outsider threatens to expose the secrets at an elite private school in this suspenseful debut novel for readers of My Dark Vanessa and Dare Me
Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose.
At first, Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield’s web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.
Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair,” when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna’s brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify.
Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling, When We Were Silent is an unputdownable, thrilling story of exploitation, privilege, and retribution.
When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips is a thriller novel that deals with a tough topic that may be a trigger to some. The story in When We Were Silent is one that is told in a dual timeline fashion with the present and from thirty years before.
Louise Manson is happily married, works at a college and is raising a teenage daughter. When Louise is contacted by a lawyer asking her to testify in another case of abuse she is thrown back in the past to remembering the trauma that she went through thirty years ago and is worried those past secrets will come surfacing into her present.
Thirty years ago Louise became the new girl at Highfield Manor, an elite private school in Dublin. Louise had gotten a scholarship but had an agenda in attending the institute and that was to defend her friend’s memory and bring a shocking secret at the school to light putting herself at risk of being the next victim.
Looking around at other’s thoughts when finishing When We Were Silent by Fiona McPhillips I see that this one falls into the case of being an outlier in my feelings for this one. Most folks seemed to have loved When We Were Silent but for me I just felt this one didn’t draw me in at all and with the tough topics I found myself rolling my eyes a few times as it seemed for lack of a better way of describing it a bit over the top to me and for the most part a lot of the book just seemed to be dragging on to me. At the end I just thought this was underwhelming to me overall and rated it at two and a half stars but while it wasn’t my cup of tea others do seem to be enjoying it.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Find this book online:
About the author:
Fiona McPhillips is an award-winning Irish journalist, author, and screenwriter. She is an editor at The Forge literary magazine and her own work has appeared in The Manchester Review, Hobart and Barren Magazine, among others.
When We Were Silent, the runner-up for the 2021 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, is her debut novel and will be published in May 2024 by Transworld in the UK and Flatiron in the US. She is also the author of two nonfiction books – Make the Home you Love (O’Brien Press) and Trying To Conceive (Liberties Press).
Fiona lives in Dublin with her three kids, two cats, and a dog.
Mind Games by Nora Roberts #bookreview #romance #suspense #paranormal
**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**
Title: Mind Games
Author: Nora Roberts
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Page Count: 419
My rating: 4 stars
About the book:
The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Identity presents a suspenseful new novel of tragedy and trauma, love and family, and the evil that awaits.
As they do each June, the Foxes have driven the winding roads of Appalachia to drop off their children for a two-week stay at their grandmother’s. Here, twelve-year-old Thea can run free and breathe in the smells of pine and fresh bread and Grammie’s handmade candles. But as her parents head back to suburban Virginia, they have no idea they’re about to cross paths with a ticking time bomb.
Back in Kentucky, Thea and her grandmother Lucy both awaken from the same nightmare. And though the two have never discussed the special kind of sight they share, they know as soon as their tearful eyes meet that something terrible has happened.
The kids will be staying with Grammie now in Redbud Hollow, and thanks to Thea’s vision, their parents’ killer will spend his life in supermax. Over time, Thea will make friends, build a career, find love. But that ability to see into minds and souls still lurks within her, and though Grammie calls it a gift, it feels more like a curse—because the inmate who shattered her childhood has the same ability. Thea can hear his twisted thoughts and witness his evil acts from miles away. He knows it, and hungers for vengeance. A long, silent battle will be waged between them—and eventually bring them face to face, and head to head…
Mind Games by Nora Roberts is a romantic suspense novel that has a paranormal edge to it with the main character being psychic. The story follows the characters over decades of their lives after one fateful event.
At twelve years old Thea and her younger brother look forward to their time in Eastern Kentucky in the Appalachia area with their grandmother. Each summer their parents make the trip from their home in Virginia to Kentucky to drop the kids off and it’s almost as much fun as Christmas for the kids.
This summer however the magical time to be a child is cut short when one night
Thea and her grandmother awaken from a shared nightmare. Both know that the unthinkable has happened all the way in Virginia, Thea’s parents have been murdered by an intruder as they watched it happen. For Thea though that nightmare had an even more ominous feel when the man responsible seemed to connect to her as she watches it all play out.
Mind Games by Nora Roberts is really a slow burn novel coming in at over four hundred pages and following this family over such a long time period. For me being someone that can get very antsy with slow burns I was surprised to find myself really enjoying this story as it went along and not getting too impatient for the conclusion the way I often do. I loved the setting and characters and their growth throughout and the paranormal side certainly gave a eerie and suspenseful edge that kept the pages turning. When finished I would most definitely recommend checking this one out.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Find this book online:
About the author:
Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Shelter in Place, Year One, Come Sundown, and many more. She is also the author of the bestselling In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than five hundred million copies of her books in print.
Whiskey with Wolves by Erica Spray blitz with giveaway
**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**
Whiskey with Wolves
Erica Spray
Publication date: May 7th 2024
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Sadie Crowe is a runaway hoping to make a better future for herself, but she soon discovers what it means to truly be on her own. While trying to survive bartending in the middle of nowhere, Sadie is swept away by promises of money and an easy life by an enigmatic stranger. The grown-up world makes one dark turn after another, and Sadie must find her way through torment into the light of her future.
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Author Bio:
Born and raised in Southwest Louisiana taught me how to spin stories naturally. The culture, the flair, and the people really made it a magical place as a child. In a lot of my writings I still use Louisiana as the location because in a place as wild and tight-knit as Southern Louisiana, the possibilities are endless.
I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was in middle school. When i was in my thirties I knew that writing was my true calling in life. Just for the record, if something is your true calling, it will never stop calling you. Writing never stopped calling me and i’m glad that I finally listened and decided to take that leap.
You’ll learn pretty quickly that my novels are mysterious and thrilling. I hope to always bring that element of surprise in each book ending. Think you have me figured out? Think again.
GIVEAWAY!
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