Resting Grinch Face by Alina Jacobs 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.**
Resting Grinch Face
Alina Jacobs
Publication date: November 17th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance
I might not be able to ruin his life, but I will ruin his Christmas.
Yeah, I’m totally a grinch. But I come by it honestly.
Because of Oliver Frost, I flamed out at Harvard in the most humiliating way possible.
Now I’m back in my small town—just in time to suffer through a display of small-town Christmas cheer so festive it will make you puke your eggnog. But who cares about being home for the holidays when you live with your family like a loser and have to share one bathroom with seven other people?
I plan to spend my Christmas purgatory being tsked at by elderly residents and passive aggressively prodded by my mom’s friends about what I plan to do with my life.
I don’t know, Deborah, work in the Christmas market and get screamed at by tourists because I didn’t put enough sprinkles on their little brats ’coffees? Seriously, who gives five-year-olds that much caffeine anyway?!
See? Like I said. A grinch.
I hate Christmas.
I set a nativity scene on fire.
Got in a fistfight with an elf—I lost, by the way.
And threw a vat of Snowman Surprise all over Oliver. Don’t ask. Small-town Christmas insanity.
Sleigh what? Oliver is here???
The man who humiliated me and ruined my life?
Ho ho ho, fuck no.
He doesn’t deserve a quaint small-town Christmas.
He doesn’t deserve a fancy Christmas tree from my family’s farm.
And he certainly does not deserve to win a bottle of whiskey in the daily Christmas market raffle.
Goddamn, I needed that drink.
He should be haunted like Ebenezer Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Past. Or at least the Ghost of Hookups Past.
Momma’s gonna have herself a very merry Christmas revenge.
Swapping the salt and sugar so his Christmas cookies are ruined? Be still, my shriveled little heart.
Spying on him so I can gather recon to ruin his holidate? Damn, I forgot how ripped his chest was.
Sneaking down his chimney to steal all the presents under his tree? Amateur hour.
Until I get caught…
Guess I’m spending Christmas in jail.
But when he sees I’m not wearing a bra under my ugly Christmas sweater, Oliver smiles like Santa has come early.
Crap! I knew I should have worn my good underwear.
Hold on to your stockings because the eggnog is spicy and mostly booze. This is a fuck-second-chances, Santa-stalker, holiday-revenge romantic comedy. Featuring Christmas-hating heroines with poor decision-making skills, ripped guys who will leave a very large package under your tree, and adorable corgis dressed up as reindeer, this standalone book has a happily ever after, guaranteed!
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EXCERPT:
I slid like a squirrel straddling the roof peak, scooting along the ridgeline to the massive brick fireplace. I pried the round ceramic top off and stuck my head inside.
The Victorians liked their fireplaces.
While my parents ’wood-burning fire was more of a stovepipe, this house had been built to hold a massive fire.
I swung my feet over and shimmied into the chimney. Below me, Max must have figured out what was up because he was barking, the noise echoing up the chimney shaft.
“Dang, I can’t believe I fit,” I marveled. The cold air whipped my face, and I had a moment of clarity.
“Maybe this was a bridge too far,” I said and tried to hoist myself back up.
The chimney rim was slick with ice. My hand slipped. Then I fell down into the sooty black tube.
I stopped abruptly, my teeth knocking together.
“Help,” I squeaked.
I was stuck in the chimney, my arms wedged up above my head. Every time I let out a breath I slid farther down. My skirt was wedged under my boobs, and my sweater was wrapped around my head and neck.
“Help!” I rasped, kicking my legs. “Max, get help.”
The dog’s frantic barking changed to excited yips.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around my soot-covered thighs.
In any other scenario, I would have been really put out that Oliver was finally touching me only after I had flaked on working out the past year and developed a layer of winter flab. But I just wanted to be free. It was difficult to breathe.
“Save me,” I forced myself to whisper.
“Shit,” Oliver said, giving a solid tug on my legs.
I wedged down farther.
“I think you’re stuck in there.” His hands disappeared.
“Don’t leave me,” I begged.
His hand was back, his thumb stroking me reassuringly on my ankle.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to call the fire department. We’ll probably have to dismantle the chimney. I’m sure my neighbors will complain to me about it.” I heard the eye roll in his voice. Then his phone emitted beeps.
I kicked my feet. “Don’t you dare, Oliver Frost. Don’t you dare call the fire department. My mother will find out. I’ll be the talk of the town for years. Decades. It will be on my tombstone.”
“I can’t leave you here,” he said, voice echoing up the shaft.
“Oh, yes you can. I insist. I’ll be dead and done rotting in about three weeks. Then we can all just pretend this never happened.”
“Are you insane?”
Oh God. I had a horrible thought.
He can probably see straight up my crotch.
Was I wearing my nice underwear? Did I even own any sufficiently nice underwear?
“Please,” I begged. “My life is shit. Please just try pulling me out one more time?”
“I’m afraid to make you more stuck. Embarrassment won’t kill you.”
“It literally will,” I shrieked with my remaining breath.
Oliver muttered something that sounded like “God save me from this woman.”
“Fine,” he grumbled, moving the logs and the metal grate out of the way. “I’m giving this one shot. Then we’re going to host the fire department for the second time in as many days.”
After a rustling of fabric, his large hands slid up my bare legs.
“Sorry for manhandling you like this.”
His bare arms circled my waist, and I squawked as he wrapped them around my bare torso, connecting my body with his.
I could feel his bare chest against my thighs.
His head was somewhere in crotch vicinity, and he squeezed me tight.
Maybe I could just tell him to eat me out and then die happy.
Oliver gave a sharp hard tug. My sweater slipped up.
He adjusted his grasp and pulled, grunting hard.
“I think I’m moving,” I called.
He gave one more strong tug. My sweater ripped, and then I was free, tumbling down in a heap of ash and yarn on top of him.
He was covered in black soot. It was all over his pale skin, turning his hair a dark gray and making his eyes a startlingly bright blue.
“See,” I said, spreading my arms. “I knew you could do it. And you wanted to call the fire department.”
He didn’t say a word. He was staring at me, or more specifically my boobs.
I looked down.
“Elf balls.”
Author Bio:
If you like steamy romantic comedies with a creative streak, then I’m your girl!
Architect by day, writer by night, I love matcha green tea, chocolate, and books! So many books…
Sign up for my mailing list to get the free novella, AFTER HIS PEONIES, along with special bonus content, giveaways, and more!
Mailing List / Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bookbub
GIVEAWAY!
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Oliana Mercer Series by Marguerite Ashton 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.**
Shadowed Seats
Marguerite Ashton
(Oliana Mercer, #1)
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
Oliana knows that every family has a secret, but she never expected hers to come from the grave.
High school senior Oliana Mercer dreams of attending the prestigious Reyersen Drama Academy and pursuing her acting career. But when tragedy strikes, Oliana discovers secrets hidden from her by her adopted parents, dimming the lights on her perfect world. As the sins of the past surface, Oliana finds herself caught up in a tug-of-war between two families while the love for her boyfriend is tested. Determined to find some form of happiness in life, Oliana becomes student director in the high school’s senior play. When her best friend, Devin Worthy, dies during dress rehearsal, Oliana is re-cast as the lead. Everyone thinks the death was a suicide, except Oliana, whose search for clues may be enough motive for the killer to murder again.
THE COMPLETE SERIES:
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo
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EXCERPT:
“Numbness held me in place as I closed the notebook and tucked it inside the wig. What did this mean? Is the Oliana mentioned in the notebook me? It had to be. But what was this about being set free? My bio parents died in a car accident.
For a second, I felt like I was standing next to a furnace, smoldering in its waves of heat. I hurried out of the attic and stood outside, trying to catch my breath.
Rain pelted my face as I glanced up at my parents ’window on the second floor, then at the driveway where Mom’s minivan and Dad’s pickup were parked. Inside the house, the lights were on in the kitchen. Probably doing what they always do together, cooking dinner.
Grief hollowed my insides. Now was not the time to confront them about what I found. Besides what was I going to do? Tell Mom, I was snooping and found something that freaked me out? The problem was I wanted to go in there and disturb their happiness, so I could get answers about what I’d read. Answers about the handwritten note to Mom by the woman I believed was my birth mother.”
Excerpt From
Shadowed Seats: Oliana Mercer Series
Marguerite Ashton
Author Bio:
When Marguerite Ashton was in her twenties, she took up acting but realized she preferred to work behind the camera, writing crime fiction. A few years later, she married an IT Geek and settled down with her role as wife, mom, and writer!
Her blog, Criminal Lines: Settled Writer Past 40 is her outlet while building dollhouses and plotting out her next book.
Marguerite lives in Wisconsin and enjoys RVing.
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Amazon
GIVEAWAY!
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Cover Reveal: Near Miss by C.S. Smith
Near Miss
C.S. Smith
Publication date: January 10th 2023
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense
He’s hostage to his past. Betrayal and death haunt former British Special Air Service captain Lachlan Mackay after a disastrous mission in the mountains of Afghanistan ends his military career. Now a civilian, his job overseeing security teams in Kabul brings the opportunity to topple a powerful warlord, avenge the dead, and free himself from the crushing guilt of trusting the wrong woman. However, his plans for revenge get derailed when someone from his past targets his beautiful new American colleague.
She has a secret that could destroy him. Sophia Russo wants to make a difference in the lives of the Afghan people. As the new director of Legislative Affairs at Landry Associates International, her job is to lobby Congress to support her company’s development projects in the war-torn country. But when her best friend’s father, a retired four-star admiral, tells her someone may be trafficking weapons to a warlord, she agrees to spy on the prime suspect, LAI’s head of Global Security. Lachlan Mackay is dangerously sexy and full of secrets, but after getting to know the Hot Scot, her heart refuses to believe he’s a criminal.
The past won’t stay dead. When Sophia is caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse between Lachlan and an unknown enemy, she teams up with him to help prove his innocence. The tables are turned when their hunt for the truth makes them the hunted.
To save Lachlan, Sophia may have to betray him, and Lachlan is forced to do the one thing he swore he’d never do again.
Trust a woman with his life.
Author Bio:
C.S. Smith writes steamy romantic suspense and paranormal romance featuring current and former special operations soldiers. She admits to having a thing for alpha males. The bigger and badder they are, the harder they fall!
While earning a Master’s in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, she worked in and around the Pentagon surrounded by good-looking men in uniform, including the one she eventually married.
Her career as a writer took off in 2018 when her youngest child learned to drive and her days of micromanaging a family of five were coming to an end. Now she manages her husband of over thirty years and the family rescue dog – a supposed Golden Retriever that DNA tests revealed is really a lab, chow, boxer mix.
Her debut award-winning romantic suspense series, Dìleas Security Agency, focuses on three former elite special operators in a brotherhood forged by betrayal, blood, and death. If you enjoy hot alpha men and feisty women wrapped up in storylines full of danger and intrigue, be sure to look for Near Miss (Book 1), Missing in Action (Book 2), and Missed Opportunity (Book 3), coming in 2023.
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A Forest of Stolen Memories by Callie Thomas 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.**
A Forest of Stolen Memories
Callie Thomas
Publication date: December 2nd 2022
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
A royal wedding turns to disaster when a curse goes awry. A victim of the Sorcerer’s prophecy, Roselyn’s memories are instantly erased, leaving her panicked at the altar. Confused, she flees to the place her prince fears most—the enchanted Mistbrooke Forest. Danger lurks closer than she can imagine, forcing her to seek help from a dark stranger who may be the key to recovering her lost memories. Can she break the curse without breaking her heart?
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EXCERPT:
I didn’t care that he was a prince—they would not force me to marry a stranger.
Yards of white lace, patterned with roses over a white satin gown, clung to the top half of my body, then fanned out around me. Dazed, I stared at them, confused why I couldn’t remember a single detail about my dress. Or about myself.
Who am I? Why could I not remember?
“Rose? Darling?” the handsome prince whispered, his words warm like honey, coaxing my eyes to his. So familiar . . . those silver eyes lined with impossibly long sandy-brown lashes. They matched his styled hair, which curled around his golden crown, not a strand out of place.
His thumbs rubbed in a soothing motion across my knuckles, my fingertips trapped in his grip. I tugged my hands, his eyes narrowing at my struggles as his hold turned painful.
“Please let me go,” I cried out.
He slid closer, so close that his warm breath caressed my cheeks, and I inhaled his lemon scent. Fear rooted me in place, the feeling of confinement strangely paralyzing. His eyes trailed over my features with heated possession, stopping to linger at my lips. Releasing one of my hands, he reached his gloved fingers for my face.
Did he think he could kiss me just because he wished it?
Not if I had anything to say about it!
Author Bio:
Callie Thomas was born in California but moved away immediately after, living in more places in the United States than she can remember. Even now, she can’t stay in one spot too long, but you can usually find her on the sandy shores of someplace tropical, possibly with a coconut drink in her hand. Callie has been writing since middle school when her teacher caught her writing stories instead of vocabulary words in her 7th grade English class. Plagued by doubt, she went in a completely different direction and graduated college at George Mason University with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic and Web Design. But the stories never stopped. Older and wiser (she hopes), she is finally ready to take a leap of faith with her writing. She recently published her first Vella series, A Forest of Stolen Memories, and is currently writing her first novel, The Captain’s Daughter.
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The Best Case Scenario by D.B. Sayers book tour
Welcome to the book tour for D.B Sayers NA romance novel, The Best Case Scenario. Read on for more info!
Best Case Scenario (The Nyra Westensee Series)
Publication Date: April 2018 (First Edition)
Genre: NA Romance
“Isn’t hope in some form our best case scenario?”
More than a year after graduating from college, Nyra is beginning to wonder when her life, professional and personal, gets started. Was it like this for her mother? She doubts it, but things were different, then. Nyra’s reality is nothing like her mother’s. Each generation confronts its own challenges.
Still, she’s tired of feeling like she’s wading through waist-deep wet cement. Buried somewhere deep in a future she can sense but not feel, Nyra can hear the siren’s song of hope and hypothetical options whispering to her. She’s so ready! But is the song she hears hope or just an illusion?
Best Case Scenario is the first act in Nyra Westensee’s journey from student to self-aware, fully actualized woman.
CW: Mature Content/ Adult Situations/ Sex and Sexuality
Fifty (50) percent of all royalties earned through the sale of Best Case Scenario, print or electronic are donated to Stand Up for Racial Justice.
Excerpt
Splashes of mid-afternoon sun dapple the stairs retreating down to the beach, shaded by a green archway of Eucalyptus, Hibiscus and Bougainvillea, still blooming fiery
red. “Steep,” Toni observes. The sign reads, Coastal Access. Open to the Public—Thousand Steps Beach.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Nyra assures her. “And it isn’t really a thousand steps…more like three hundred, I think. It just feels like a thousand on the way back out but—”
“Greaaat…there’s no easier way?”
“Not unless you have a boat.” Nyra shrugs. “Sorry.”
“I get it. Payback for riding your ass these past few weeks, right?”
“No! And it’ll be way worth the climb.”
“Better be.” Toni pulls her sunglasses down to give Nyra the benefit of her best stink-eye, softened with a teasing smile.
“I promise. Let’s go.”
Toni grabs Nyra’s hand to stop her. “And you keep your promises, right?”
Nyra’s heart races and she squeezes Toni’s hand, drawing her toward the stairs. “Come on,” she says. “Low tide was almost an hour ago, but the caves will still be dry.”
The whole way down, Nyra is acutely aware of the caress of Toni’s eyes from the side and the warmth of the hand she’s still holding. Sunlight winks at them periodically, through the canopy overhead. Twice on the way down, the tickle of a low-hanging branch against her shoulder makes her shiver. Fear, anticipation—both?
At the bottom, they break into full sunlight that seems to bless the translucent waves, staining them a delicate tourmaline. Strands of kelp mark the last high tide line in the sand. Nyra is surprised to find the beach deserted.
She shrugs out of her hydration pack and sheds her sweatpants, revealing skimpy bikini bottoms. “We’re guaranteed to get wet somewhere,” she explains. “Either in the caves or the tide pools.” She glances at Toni’s navy-blue Capri leggings. “Those may salt stain. I have an extra pair of shorts in my pack you can wear if…”
Toni’s already skimming her capris over her hips, to reveal ivory panties, with lace trim. She exchanges her capris, still warm to the touch for Nyra’s shorts. “Thanks,” she says.
“My pleasure.” Nyra rolls Toni’s leggings carefully and stows them in her pack, along with her sweatpants.
She takes a deep drink from her hydration tube and offers it to Toni. After a tentative sip, Toni takes a deeper drink. “Tastes like pomegranate,” she notes.
“My brother Kip used to get on my case about not drinking enough while we were out hiking or at the beach,” Nyra replies. “But I can’t stand drinking plain water,
especially after it gets warm. So, I started adding ice cubes and flavoring to make it more palatable.”
“Good idea!”
They poke around in the tide pools, where Nyra points out black and wavy top Turban, Sea Anemone, Limpets and a startled Shore Crab, scuttling across the partially submerged rocks. She can’t recall it ever being this deserted.
The tide’s still low enough to clamor around in the exposed caves, worn smooth by wave erosion in some places, rough with barnacles in others. Where boulders are routinely awash, moss clings to them, filling the air with the humid, organic scent of life.
“I’ve lived in Southern California almost ten years,” Toni observes, “and I had no idea this was even here. I thought you had to go a couple hundred miles up the coast to find places like this.” Her eyes meet Nyra’s and she steps closer. “Thanks for taking the time to be my tour guide, today.”
“My pleasure,” Nyra replies. Toni is so close now, Nyra can feel her warmth. Even in the subdued light of the cave, she feels the pull of her eyes. Nyra’s stomach spasms as Toni’s hands slip around her waist. She looks up, offering lips that tremble when Toni’s find hers. She kisses back, tentatively, then insistently.
Apprehension melts into desire, spiking Nyra’s blood with excitement as her lips bloom open to welcome the probe of Toni’s tongue. Nyra’s hands, as though with a will of their own, slide over Toni’s hips, pulling her closer. Her thoughts swim to the caress of Toni’s ripe, sweet mouth.
She can feel herself opening up and the cave’s humid shelter mutes the outside world. Time feels elastic, as though it’s bending to their will, making the moment last. Even the irritant of the rough cave walls digging into Nyra’s back can’t distract her, until the sound of water sluicing into the cave brings her back to the present.
A thrill of apprehension competes with frustration and the hammering of her heart. “We should go.” Nyra’s whisper sounds dry, raspy to her. “Tide’s coming back in. And…the walk up always feels longer than the walk down.”
Available on Amazon
About the Author
Dirk’s path to authorship wasn’t quite an accident, but almost. It’s not that he didn’t write. He did. But through two previous careers, first as a Marine officer and subsequently as a corporate trainer, he started way more stories than he finished.
In the backwash of the 2008 financial meltdown however, Dirk’s employer filed for Chapter 11 protection and laid off more than half it’s staff. Cordially invited to leave and not return, he found
himself out of work and excuses. He finished his contemporary last-chance romance entitled West of Tomorrow the following year.
Since then, Dirk has written five more books, including Best-Case Scenario, Act I of Nyra’s Journey and it’s squel, (Act II) entitled The Year of Maybe, published earlier this year. He also writes for Medium, blogs on his website, where you can find a full list of his works and subscribe to Smoke Signals, his newsletter.
A member of the Southern California Writer’s Association, Dirk lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife their psychotic cat and a 13-year-old Ball Python named Corona. Besides his passion for the written word, he’s an accomplished wood worker, snow skier and compulsive gym rat.
Book Tour Organized By:
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