Cover Reveal: Versions, Virtues, Variations by Megan Mitcham
*covers designed by Deranged Doctor Design*
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ABOUT THE BOOKS:
VERSIONS – August 2016
Base Branch 7
The truth doesn’t have versions. Or does it?
Rin Lee covered her childhood in dirt and danced on its grave. Only she pranced a little too hard and spent her young-adult life tiptoeing the straight and narrow. Things finally paid off in the form of a job with the Department of Defense, a home of her own, and a boyfriend muscled enough he put Zach Efron to shame. Until one text reveals a hideous truth that splinters her world.
Suddenly she can’t trust Nate or their surrogate family of friends. Can she possibly trust Luck—the man who mirrors her soul, scares her beyond the neat confines she’s erected around herself, and makes her scrutinize the versions she’s always been too angry to see?
Luck turned to the streets out of necessity, while Rin slapped on blinders and ignored those willing to help her. A stupid move for a sultry young woman. But the skills she learned in the rough and tumble underbelly of DC will serve his latest assignment well. Because people like them have the instinct to survive.
VIRTUES – September 2016
Base Branch 8
Once they’re gone, can you ever get them back?
As a CIA spy turned traitor to her country, Cara Lee kissed her virtues goodbye long ago. After seventeen years, her retribution ended with the burial of her enemy and a fresh start with her daughter. If only she could forgive herself enough to rebuild their relationship.
Luck—her daughter’s fiancé—wasn’t Cara’s only attempt at atonement. She took Marina Sorensen off a Swedish street corner and schooled her in the art of survival. Too bad the girl sold her and Luck out to the thugs of Brödraskapet.
Her disciplined nature prods Cara to tie the loose end—one way or the other. But the commander of the UN’s special forces has other plans. The last thing she wants is another government job. Given an ultimatum—and a babysitter—she plays along.
Tyler Grace should have been a farmer in east Texas, but the universe had other plans. A tactical expert for the Base Branch, when he finds a problem, he seeks the best way to fix it. Cara presents an obstacle he’s ill prepared to conquer—but he’ll die trying.
Struggling to sort through her past, Cara clings to the one virtue she has left, while Tyler dares to prove she never lost them.
VARIATIONS – October 2016
Base Branch 9
Decisions split paths. Bad decisions compound and suddenly you are no more than variations of yourself.
Author Bio:
USA Today bestselling author Megan Mitcham was born and raised among the live oaks and shrimp boats of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where her enormous family still calls home. She attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi where she received a bachelor’s degree in curriculum, instruction, and special education. For several years Megan worked as a teacher in Mississippi. She married and moved to South Carolina and worked for an international non-profit organization as an instructor and co-director.
In 2009 Megan fell in love with books. Until then, books had been a source for research or the topic of tests. But one day she read Mercy by Julie Garwood. And Oh Mercy, she was hooked!
Megan lives in Southern Arkansas where she pens sizzling suspense novels. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Goodreads. For news, giveaways, and exclusive offers sign up for her newsletter at http://www.meganmitcham.com!
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Hot & Nerdy 2 by Shannyn Schroeder blitz with giveaway
Hot & Nerdy 2
Shannyn Schroeder
Published by: Lyrical Press
Publication date: May 24th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Adam, Hunter, and Free have a lot in common, like geeky passions and not exactly great track records when it comes to dating. But a New Year’s Eve bash will bring everything they’ve ever wanted–and so much more . . .
His Work Of Art
Adam Hayes has never met a girl like Reese. She’s sassy, smart, and loves talking comics, although he can’t see why she’d choose DC over Marvel. He’s thrilled to finally put his artistic chops to use in their upcoming comic project. But when the two combine forces, they churn out magic in more ways than they had planned . . .
His New Jam
There’s something unusual about the sarcastic percussionist Hunter Reed hired for his band. For one thing, she’s impervious to his advances. But when Hunter sees how passionate Sydney is behind the drums, he orchestrates a plan to find out if she kisses like she plays. What he doesn’t anticipate is falling so hard . . .
His Dream Role
Free Mitchell loves the theater. When he’s masquerading as Dr. Who or Sherlock Holmes, he feels he can escape his shy, dorky persona. But nothing’s prepared him to play boyfriend to a gorgeous girl like Samantha Wolf. The more time they spend together, the more they seem to be going off the script, and the hotter everything gets . . .
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EXCERPT:
Hunter walked into his bedroom and bounced on the bed, waking Sydney.
She grunted at him. “It’s Saturday. And we played a gig last night. I should get to sleep in.”
“You did sleep in. It’s almost noon.”
She rolled over. “I hate morning people.”
Hunter laughed. Then he leaned over and kissed his way up her spine. “I have to go to Comic Con. I promised Adam I’d help out today.”
“So go.”
“Don’t you want to come, too? Free and Sam will be here soon. We’re all driving together.”
She rolled over and opened one eye to look at him. “Comic Con?”
“Adam and Reese are selling their book. It’ll be fun.”
She sat up and opened both eyes. “What the hell are you wearing?”
He stood and straightened his jacket. He picked up the hat he’d left on the dresser and posed. “I’m Indiana Jones.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s Comic Con. Dressing up is half the fun.”
“I thought dressing up was Free’s thing.” She reached for the coffee he’d set on the nightstand for her.
“It is. Except for today. I think I look good.”
“Yeah, except you’re wearing a leather jacket. In August.”
“The convention center will be air-conditioned.”
The doorbell rang. Hunter pointed at her. “You coming?”
“Yeah, sure.”
He ran to let Free and Sam in. Free was wearing his god-awful Riddler costume. Of all the things Free owned, this was the one Hunter hated. “Really? You had to wear that?”
Sam stepped from behind Free. “What would go better with Batgirl?”
Hunter rolled his eyes. “You’re such nerds.”
“We’re nerds? You’re dressed up, too,” she said.
“First, I borrowed this costume from your boyfriend and his nerd closet. Second, Indiana Jones is cool.”
Free pointed at him. “He’s a college professor and an archaeologist. I think by definition, that’s nerdy.”
“Whatever.” Hunter turned and yelled toward the bedroom, “Are you ready, Syd?”
Sydney came around the corner a minute later, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. “What the hell?” She waved her pointer finger at them. “I am not dressing like that.”
Hunter shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
He drove to the convention center since his minivan was more comfortable for them all to fit. This weekend was a nice break and end to summer. School was starting for
teachers in a week and he couldn’t wait. Free had started working for his dad as expected right after graduation. Adam was the only one still in the same place.
Hunter really hoped the convention would give Adam the kick start he needed for his career. One of Adam’s biggest problems was that he was too cautious. He overthought everything. Hunter had really thought that adding Reese to his life would make Adam a little more easygoing.
Once they got into the convention center, Free said, “Adam and Reese are in Artist Alley. I’ll come by in a while. We have a couple of panels we want to get in on.”
With a nod to Hunter and Sydney, he grabbed Samantha’s hand and pulled her through the crowd. When he was gone, Sydney said, “He really gets into this, doesn’t he?”
Hunter nodded. “It’s easy for him to pretend to be someone else.”
“I haven’t seen him in costumes much lately.”
Hunter pointed them in the direction of Adam and Reese. “That’s because Cary doesn’t need the distraction at the health club anymore. And Free has Samantha, so he doesn’t need to impress anyone else.”
When they walked down an aisle of Artist Alley, Hunter saw Adam and Reese sitting behind a table. He sighed. Holding Sydney’s hand, he said, “They really need our help.”
“What?”
“Nobody’s paying attention to them.”
Syd smiled. “Maybe they should’ve worn a costume.”
Hunter stopped in front of the table. “How do you expect to sell anything sitting there like that? Where are your book things?”
“Dude, we tried talking to people. You have any idea how exhausting it is to try to grab someone’s attention?”
“Yeah, yeah. Gimme some books.”
Adam came around the table with an armful of the sample booklets they’d printed and stapled. “I’ll come with you. Sydney will stay with Reese, right?”
Syd rolled her eyes but nodded. She and Reese weren’t exactly friends, but they got along. As he and Adam stepped away from the table, Hunter heard Syd telling Reese about Free and Sam and the costumes. The girls’ laughter followed them down the aisle.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“I told you I would be.”
“I know you’re busy getting ready for the school year. It’s cool that you made time for this. And convinced Sydney to come.” Adam blew out a breath.
Hunter took a moment to smile at a couple of women dressed as aliens and offer them a booklet. They each took one.
“It’s been a crazy couple of days,” Adam continued. “Reese and I split up yesterday to sit in on some workshops and I did pitch sessions.”
“Any luck?”
“Yeah, but that’s part of the problem. I think Reese and I went into this with different expectations. Or at least we have different ones now.”
“How do you mean?” Hunter paused again beside a group of women. “Excuse me. My artist friend here and his girlfriend wrote a really kick-ass comic. Here’s a sample.”
At first they looked startled that Hunter had interrupted them, but then they relaxed and each took a book. When he resumed walking beside Adam, he said, “And that, son, is how it’s done.”
Author Bio:
Shannyn Schroeder is the author of the O’Leary series, contemporary romances centered around a large Irish-American family in Chicago and the Hot & Nerdy series about 3 nerdy friends finding love. Her new series (For Your Love) will release this summer with the first title Under Your Skin. When she’s not wrangling her three kids or writing, she watches a ton of TV and loves to bake cookies.
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Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford
Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Evelyn Beegan wants to forge her own path in life outside of the influence of her social climbing mother. Unfortunately for Evelyn she obtains a job at a social network aimed at the elite landing her right back into the world she’d shied away from.
When Evelyn needs to start recruiting for her job she tries to fit in and pass herself off as “old money” to fit into the socialite and wall street crowd. But with her own family problems she may end up with her charade crumbling down around her.
Everybody Rise is one of those books that sounded interesting but unfortunately ended up just not really being for me. I couldn’t find myself really attaching to any of the characters and found much of the story rather kind of dull. For instance there was a part with a lengthy talk about table manors that simply had me yawning and zoning out.
I will admit there are some funnier moments here and there and heard talk of this possibly being a movie, really it would probably work better for me in that format than actually reading. The ending really seems predictable but I could see the appeal to the humor and emotional aspects if the characters were brought to life a bit more for me.
Overall, wasn’t for me as I never really got engaged in the story or characters.
I won this book from Goodreads First Reads.
Cover Reveal: Love the Way You Lie by Skye Warren
Love the Way You Lie
Skye Warren
(Stripped #1)
Publication date: Adult, Romance
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult
A dark romance about the lies that lead us down…
I’ll do anything to get safe, even if that means working at the scariest club in town.
I’ll do anything to stay hidden, even if it means taking off my clothes for strangers.
I’ll do anything to be free. Except give him up. When he looks at me, I forget why I can’t have him. He’s beautiful and scarred. His body fits mine, filling the places where I’m hollow, rough where I am soft.
He’s the one man who wants to help me, but he has his own agenda. He has questions I can’t answer. What are you afraid of?
You.
The complete series:
Author Bio:
Skye Warren is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of dark romance. Her books are raw, sexual and perversely tender.
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Curse by Steven James book blitz with giveaway
Curse
Steven James
(Blur Trilogy #3)
Published by: Skyscape
Publication date: May 24th 2016
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult
Don’t miss this intriguing and climactic conclusion to the Blur Trilogy.
As Daniel Byers prepares to attend a basketball camp before his senior year of high school, the terrifying blurs that’ve plagued him for the last nine months return.
Dark images begin to haunt him—creatures crawling from the deepest pits of his nightmares, glimmers of chilling memories from his early childhood. But before he can unearth the meaning behind his mysterious hallucinations, Daniel must team up with two other extraordinary teens to save a young woman who has been abducted by a scientist obsessed with enacting his own warped form of justice.
This atmospheric mystery picks up where Fury left off and takes readers into the uncharted regions where reality and madness intertwine.
EXCERPT:
Dr. Waxford wound his way along the road, climbing higher into the Great Smoky Mountains.
He and his team had made great strides in the last couple of years, but the loss of the research facility in northern Wisconsin last December had slowed things down—that is, until they located this old hotel here in this remote part of eastern Tennessee.
Actually, the site was ideal. It was isolated and lay at the end of a one-lane road that had hardly been used in years.
Back in the 1950s when a new highway was built that wrapped around the other side of the mountain, it took the tourists and other businesses with it. The hotel owners went bankrupt and the property went into foreclosure.
Rumored to be haunted, the Estoria Inn had sat empty for decades and was being reclaimed by the forest when Adrian and his team started renovations. Most people, even those in the nearby towns, had forgotten that this place even existed.
And none of them knew what kind of research was happening there now.
Which was probably a good thing.
Fortuitously, the Estoria was also less than an hour drive for the hypnotherapist Adrian sometimes brought up to implant suggestions in the minds of his subjects after they’d been put into a deep trance.
When you pay a hypnotist enough, you can get him to implant any suggestions that you want.
Despair. Depression. Loneliness. They can all be the tools you use in the service of the
greater good.
•••
We’re on our phones searching Internet news sites for recent obituaries when the X-ray results come back.
No broken bones.
The ankle is only sprained. The shoulder will recover. It won’t be ideal for the basketball camp, but at least it’s not my shooting arm.
The doctor gives me a sling to keep the shoulder in place, then explains what I already know: It’s going to be very sore for a while and I’ll run the risk of it coming out of its socket again unless I’m careful. “You’ll need to keep your arm in that sling for the next four to six weeks.”
“Okay. Thanks,” I say, but I know that’s not going to happen.
This camp is a huge deal and missing it isn’t an option. At least a dozen Division I coaches will be there recruiting players and it’s my best chance to get the attention I need for a scholarship offer.
Although I’ve had some interest from a few Big Ten football coaches, honestly, I’d rather play college basket- ball. Way fewer injuries. Less time lifting and more time actually playing. Besides, I don’t really have the size for col- lege football—not to mention my mom worrying about me less, which is a bonus.
While the doctor calls Dad to bring him up to speed and also get permission to give me some pain medication, I touch base with Mom to make sure she knows I’m alright. I decide that it’ll be best to explain about the blur in person, so I don’t bring it up.
Finally, the doctor hands me the meds, along with a prescription.
On their way to see me at the hospital, Kyle had picked up Nicole from her place, so now we swing by to get my car from the road out by the lake where I left it earlier.
Somehow, the logging company has managed to get the logs far enough to one side to allow cars to get past.
Being here brings everything back again and I can’t tell if it’s just my imagination, but my shoulder seems to throb more as I remember what it was like to get hit by that truck.
My attention shifting from one thing to the next. That slipstream again. All those unnoticed slivers of reality curling right past me.
But now, the ones branded with pain are coming to the forefront.
I ride with Nicole, who drives my car so I can rest my shoulder. Kyle follows us back to my house in his vintage Mustang. Even though it’s late, we search online again for a little
while, but we still can’t find anything about kids who’ve recently died—at least not any that match the age of the boy in the road.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s still alive.
He might not have died recently. After all, the girl I saw burn up in my blur back in December had actually died in the 1930s.
As it turned out, I’d learned about her story and seen her picture years ago when I was nine. Then, just before Christmas, my mind threaded some clues together and showed me what it might have looked like when the lantern she was standing next to caught fire to her nightgown and ended up taking her life.
I’d forgotten all about her.
When the memory came back, it brought a flood of other grisly images with it because the day I first saw her photo I’d been present when a killer struck, but I’d blocked it out.
They say trauma can do that, that it can rip the fabric between your conscious and your subconscious mind.
My problem is that the rip keeps getting bigger.
My friends get word from their parents that they need to take off and I tell them goodnight.
“See you tomorrow?” Nicole says. “Yeah.” I give her a quick kiss. “Kiss me and I’ll dislocate your other shoulder,” Kyle tells me. Then he taps a finger thoughtfully against the air. “But at least then you wouldn’t notice the first one so much. So there is that.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.” “Okay, so before I go, I’ve got one for you.” “You’ve got one?” “A riddle: I’m twice as old as I used to be when I was half as young as I am now. How old am I?” For months he’s been trying to trick me with math or logic problems. Doesn’t always work out so well. “That one’s easy. It would be whatever age you are, so you’re the same as me. Seventeen.” “Yes. And I’m seriously glad you’re still seventeen and not dead.” “Yeah.”
“It would have totally ruined my night.” “Mine too.” “Text me.” “I will.”
A little while after they leave, Dad comes home and checks on me.
“I’m good,” I tell him. “Anything serious with that call?” “Call?” “The dispatch code. I heard it at the hospital. Was it a suicide?”
“Scarlett Cordova accidentally overdosed on some over the counter drugs.”
Scarlett is a year behind me at school. “Is she alright?” “She will be. Gave everyone a scare, though.” “How do they know?”
He looks at me curiously. “How do they know what?” “You said she accidentally OD’ed. How do they know it was an accident?” “There were three other kids there with her when it happened. It was during some kind of drinking game. Her parents were gone. Good thing she’s alright. Lucky girl.”
“There’s a lot of that going around tonight.” “A lot of what?” “Luck.” “I guess maybe there is.”
After telling me one more time how thankful he is that I’m okay, he heads to his room and I climb into bed, hoping that even with the aching shoulder I’ll be able to get some rest.
Instead, I find myself caught up thinking about who that boy might have been and what the blur might mean.
He’d reached out to me, just like the girls in my earlier blurs had done.
It’d been too late to save them.
Maybe if we were lucky one more time, it wouldn’t be too late to save him.
Author Bio:
Best known for his high-octane thrillers, Steven James is the award-winning author of eleven suspense novels. The Blur Trilogy is his first mystery series for teens. Steven has taught creative writing around the world and loves rock climbing, science fiction movies, and chicken fajitas. Find him at http://www.stevenjames.net.
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