Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Broken by Alexis Winter Release




Title: Broken
Series: South Side Boys #2
Author: Alexis Winter
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 19, 2019



Blurb

“He wanted what wasn’t his.”
He stops moving but doesn’t let go of me.
He has a look in his eye…Intense. Predatory. Claiming.
“But I’m not yours either.”
“Tonight, you will be.”

The moment she made that stupid bet with me I should have walked away.
Pretend to be her boyfriend at her high school reunion.
Instead, I lean in and whisper: “Girl, I’ll show you things you didn’t even know existed and make other guys you’ve been with seem like boys.”
I knew I couldn’t resist her perfectly plump lips, the curve of her delicious hips.
What I didn’t expect?
To fall for her. To crave her. To need her.
She thinks I’m just a reformed criminal with a history of bad mistakes and prison time
But the truth is, the demons from my past are knocking down my door.
Tori Brennan may act like a tough talking ball buster
But I know better.
She wants everything I can’t give her.
Happiness, love, safety.
There’s only one thing I can give her…
A broken heart.







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Excerpt

He stops moving but doesn’t let go of me. He has that same look in his eyes that he just had talking about Billy.
Intense. Predatory. Claiming.
“He wanted what wasn’t his.”
I give him a look, knowing this may well be the only chance I’ll have to try and take what I want. And what I think he wants as well.
“But I’m not yours either.”
Before I know it, his lips come crashing down on mine, silencing anything else I could say. And then he abruptly ends it, leaving me panting.
I want to ask what that was, but I can’t, because he suddenly says the words I never thought I’d hear.
“Tonight, you will be.”






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Author Bio


Alexis Winter is a contemporary romance author who loves to share her steamy stories with the world. She specializes in billionaires, alpha males and the women they love. 

If you love to curl up with a good romance book you will certainly enjoy her work. Whether it's a story about an innocent young woman learning about the world, or a sassy and fierce heroin who knows what she wants you're sure to enjoy the happily ever afters she provides.

When Alexis isn't furiously writing her next novel, you can find her exploring the Rocky Mountains, traveling, enjoying a glass of wine or petting a cat.

You can find her books on Amazon.


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The Line That Binds by Carolyn LaRoche Release & Giveaway




Title: The Line That Binds
Author: Carolyn LaRoche
Genre: Women's Fiction
Release Date: October 21, 2019



Blurb

Eleanor Hart loved the same man almost her entire life. When her husband Gary, a Virginia Beach police officer, is killed in the line of duty, her whole world is torn apart. One minute she's drinking margaritas with her girlfriends, and the next, she's planning a funeral. Her two best friends, Vivian and Marietta, wrap their love and friendship around her while doing their best to support their husbands who were witnesses to the brutal murder of their friend and colleague. They fight to keep their marriages together amidst depression, guilt, grief, alcoholism, and PTSD. Through the enormity of the loss, they discover the true strength of their friendship. With plenty of hugs, tears, wine, and ice cream, the three friends navigate the complicated aftermath of Gary's death. Together they can handle anything.

Friends by chance.

Sisters by choice.

Strengthened by The Line That Binds.




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Excerpt

Vivian came out of the walk-in closet holding a small wood box. "Hey, Ellie, I found this on the shelf under his jeans."
"What is it? I don't recognize it."
Vivian handed it to her. Eleanor set it on the dresser before flipping the top up. Inside sat a miscellaneous collection of items. Eleanor picked up the photo off the top of the pile. It was one of the two of them, Gary in uniform and Eleanor pinning his badge to his chest. They both looked so young, so expectant and happy for the future to come. She touched his face with her finger, wishing it were really him. "This is at Gary's academy graduation."
"I've never seen this one before." Vivian took the photo and turned it over. "Look, he wrote something on the back."
She handed the photo back to Eleanor. She turned it over and recognized Gary's tight script. He'd only written two words: My love.
Eleanor held the photo to her heart. "He never came across as a romantic man but maybe he really was."
"Judging by the things he held onto, I'd say he was very romantic." Marietta pushed the box toward her. "Look."
She did. The next things she saw, the twins' hospital bracelets from the day they were born, brought moisture to her eyes. She thought she'd thrown those away. A cocktail napkin from their favorite date night spot, a seashell painted with the words St. Lucia from their honeymoon, the first pair of cufflinks she'd ever given him. She'd found them at a tag sale. They weren't worth anything but the crystal blue stones had exactly matched the color of his eyes.
"I can't believe he kept all these things." Eleanor wiped at her eyes and sniffed.
"I can," Vivian said. "You were his whole world."
"And now he's gone and this is what I am left with." Eleanor pushed the box away.
Marietta reached in and pulled out a pink hair tie. "But, what if that is why he saved all these things? So, that if something ever did happen to him, you'd know the things that were important to him and how much he loved you."
"Maybe." Eleanor took the hair tie from Marietta. "I used to wear that all the time when the twins were babies. They liked to yank my hair so I kept it braided. I'd wondered where it had gotten off to."
"This is your piece of Gary. He left it behind for you," Vivian said.
She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. "I had no idea he'd been doing this all these years."
"Do you want to look at the rest of it?" Marietta asked. "We can leave you alone for a few minutes."
Eleanor reached for a tissue on her nightstand and blew her nose. She shook her head. "I can't right now." Eleanor closed the lid. "If I go through the rest of this now, I'll never get these clothes taken care of."
"The clothes can wait, Ellie," Vivian said. "If you want them to."
"No. I'm not ready to look at it all now." She picked up the box and walked over to the night stand. Pulling out the drawer, she tucked the box inside and closed the drawer again. She needed to look at the rest of the contents when her heart wasn't so fragile. Preferably alone so she could take the time to cherish each item's memory. 






Author Bio

Carolyn LaRoche grew up in snow country but fled the cold and ice several years ago. She now lives near the beach with her husband and their two sons. She’s been known to lug her laptop to the baseball fields and keeps a notebook by her bed to jot down the next big story idea in the wee hours of the night.


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Beware Mohawks Bearing Gifts Release & Giveaway



Title: Beware Mohawks Bearing Gifts
Author: SA Collins
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: October 21, 2019
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 140100
Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy, LGBT, Sci-fi, historical, paranormal, family-drama, alternate universe, gay, Native Americans, magic, witch, vampire, shifter, New York, Nineteenth century, fringe science

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Synopsis


It’s 1847, New York.

William Matthias Hallett is a fashionable dandy of the Manhattan social set. His life is laid out before him: a world of soirees, riches, and luxury. Yet all he wants to do is find an adventure so deliciously wicked that it will satiate his soul for an eternity.

Disguised in a lower-class manner, into the notorious Five Points he goes, seeking that spark of adventure. That is until it greets him in the form of his old schoolmates from Dartmouth College—a pair of Mohawk warriors who will up-end his world and all he knew it to be forever.

Excerpt


Beware Mohawks Bearing Gifts
SA Collins © 2019
All Rights Reserved

Prologue
Wherein we learn of the legend of Skywoman and her twin boys, Spruce and Flint, and how that was just the beginning…

The Haudenosaunee Territories

As recounted by Tiyanoga to the people

October 21st, 1203

3:12 p.m.

“I speak to you now, the words and the voice of the people. Words that speak of our coming, our creation, and our enduring peace. These are the words of our fathers, our mothers, given to us since time immemorial. Hear now of the sacred warriors, the Tewakenonhnè, and learn what they tell us…”

We, The People, carry the story of Skywoman and of our creation with us. She resonates with us because she is the beginning.

From an early age we hear about her fall from the world of the Skypeople. Spying our world through a hole amongst the roots of the Tree of Life, she grew curious of our watery planet below. Ridiculed by the Skypeople for her curiosity, she was pushed from her world through the hole and fell in a fiery blaze to ours. Seeing her plummeting toward the Earth, geese flew high into the sky to ease her descent to our world. On their wings she watched in wonder as they glided over the vast oceans of the planet.

Knowing she needed a place to land, several aquatic animals scoured the water’s depths to find some soil to put onto a great turtle’s back. When they did, they created our home, Turtle Island. From the moment her feet touched upon the land, she began to seed the plants and create the beginnings of animal life that would populate this new world. They fell from the garments she wore as she walked around, and they took root and thrived in this strange new land.

Enraptured with her staggering creations, she gave birth to twins. The first, a virile strapping boy, she named O’so:ra (Spruce), bringer of all good things in life. Yet, where Spruce possessed a robust body and a healthy glow, his twin, Saweskira (Flint), clawed his way from his mother’s womb into this world sinewy and pallid in color and of ill purpose. One brother a bringer of light, love, empathy, and compassion. The other of darkness, malfeasance, calculated evil, and deception. Even in this, the balance of life must be maintained. The brothers, simply by being, kept that balance.

Would that their differences ended with their outworldly appearances. Our hearts are heavy knowing this is not so. But, as with all things in life, each responds and interacts with the world around them according to their own gifts.

Spruce moved about his world enthralled with every aspect of life his mother gifted them. His keen and sharp mind, coupled with his compassion and deeply profound respect for all the possibilities life afforded him, became the wellspring of his own creations. He demonstrated from childbirth his ability to imbue wondrous things on the island. Expanding upon the flora and fauna his mother started, he freely gave of himself to the world around him.

Flint, however, would toil his days away finding his brother’s marvelous creations. Taking fiendish delight, he perverted them into beings of a darker purpose—bending Spruce’s creation to his conniving will. Under Flint’s maligned hand the common garden snake grew fangs saturated with poison to fill others with its toxic venom.

The boys moved about in a world immersed in brotherly affection laden with sibling competition. The latter trait, however, would come to shake the world to its core.

As their bodies grew in stature, so too did their conflicts. Smaller skirmishes between the twins eventually grew to outright warfare. Ultimately, Spruce found he could no longer bear to ignore the darkness that seemed to pour from his brother’s very soul. Enraged and saddened by his brother’s relentless assault on life, Spruce, bearing the heaviest of hearts, decided to put an end to it.

Thus, the brothers engaged, and an awesome battle ensued—a cataclysmic tussle that continued to rage with little regard for the passage of time. Whether one year or one million years, no one can say, for no one was there to mark its passing. What is known is the twins, in their epic sibling conflict, created the mountainscapes, deep canyons and gorges, as they flung their titanic bodies across Turtle Island, slamming each other into the fertile soil, hardening soft mounds of earth with brilliant fiery gazes that could melt the ground into sharp peaks, reaching heights this world had never known before.

When it seemed the world could no longer bear more of their anger, Spruce finally gained the upper hand and, in his victory, banished Flint to the shadows of life where darkness dwelled and bitterness and anger could make a home in him. There, in the oppressive darkness, Flint’s heart grew black.

Though the battle ended, their sibling war was far from over.

Deep in those darkened places, in the blackest recesses of his banished realm, Flint raged, swearing he would not be gone forever. From those obscured caverns, sitting on an obsidian throne of his own making, he withdrew to lick his wounds and bide his time. For time, that uncontrollable but progressive companion, Flint knew would be ever in his favor. He counted on his brother’s good nature leading Spruce to grow weary of watching for him. Flint felt all but assured he would work his way back to his rightful place to dominate the world his brother denied him. Patience and planning were all he required now.

Slowly, over the millennia, he crept back into everyday life, slithering through the cracks he created, testing his brother’s resolve to keep him at bay. Whenever threatened by Spruce, Flint and his horde would retreat to their shadows, eager to fight another day.

But then Spruce did a thing his brother did not expect. For reasons no one can fathom, Spruce decided his works here were complete. Confident his brother was no longer a threat in this world, he became resolved to take his leave, to simply walk away. What Flint did not know, what he could not have guessed, was that his brother’s gaze turned skyward—he sought life beyond their world. He wanted to return home, to the land of the Skypeople.

Spruce’s final imprint on this land—he created the people of Turtle Island and imbued them with the knowledge to be the world’s custodians, or balance-keepers. By them, the world would be cared for and treasured. They would become the check and balance against Flint and his minions should they rise.

For a time, it appeared to work. But patience was Flint’s greatest weapon. He could wait several millennia if that is what it took to achieve his ultimate goal. So, Flint prodded the people. He poked at their defenses. Never so much as to do them great harm, but to test their strategic maneuvers and resolve.

Weary of smaller engagements, Flint reached into the world, revealing a shrewdness in his offensive tactics, eventually doing great damage to the people, weakening their defenses. Whispers from Flint in men’s ears and in their hearts became commonplace. Meanwhile, Flint’s work continued, maneuvering the people against one another to the brink of oblivion. In this, Flint’s plan began to establish his evil intent: fear, mistrust, and deceit would he plant in men’s hearts.

It worked.

As the infighting waged between the people, they realized they were losing too many of their kind to keep Flint in his place. The Onondaga Faithkeeper, in desperation, appealed to Spruce through prayers and offerings, begging for his assistance, explaining that the people were losing the battle, and all would be lost if he did not intercede on their behalf.

His heartfelt plea fell on deaf ears. For decade after decade, with further losses amongst the people, maddeningly Spruce remained silent—removed from their request. The people who remained, left to guard the planet, stood strong in their resolution to oppose Flint; they just did not possess the means necessary to defeat such a foe and in their weariness, their frustration festered between them, further playing into Flint’s plan.

Under Flint’s influence, the people argued amongst themselves about the correct way to defeat him. Flint saw this as an opportunity and played into this—pooling malcontentedness where he could, nurturing it, cultivating enmity toward their brothers and sisters.

On the eve of a particularly cold and bitter winter night, in the midst of a great battle, the people warring amongst themselves, tearing at one another to the brink of desolation, their prayer, long since forgotten, was finally answered.

He came.

Spruce returned one last time.

He returned to us not as we remembered, but as another great man: Dekanawida—known to us as the Great Peacemaker.

Dekanawida came to a man, a Mohawk man—Aiionwatha—who sat near a lake grieving over the butchering of his entire family during a recent battle. The Peacemaker consoled the man in his all-consuming desolation. Tears that seemed to have no end dried upon Aiionwatha’s face as he spoke to the man, though not because of his words, but of the calming peace emanating from every part of him.

Resolved that the conflict had to end, the Peacemaker implored Aiionwatha to help him bring the people together. Using the analogy of a bundle of arrows, he explained how they needed to get the warring peoples to understand that a single arrow could easily be broken, but combined and of like purpose, they were nearly unbreakable.

The Peacemaker knew the words of peace should come from one of their own. Dekanawida stuttered to the point of shaking bodily just trying to convey a single thought—coaxing Aiionwatha to be that voice to the people. At first Aiionwatha was afraid no one would hear him. But Dekanawida assured him the calming and abiding peace that poured from his soul would warm their hearts and they would welcome Aiionwatha’s words.

It was hard work to bring the people together, but under Aiionwatha’s impassioned tongue, and the Peacemaker’s influence, the people began to respond and see the way to the Great Law of Peace.

That was until Aiionwatha and Dekanawida came to the great Onondaga Nation. Here the great chief, Atotarho, was rumored to be the most removed from Aiionwatha’s words. He had heard of Dekanawida and Aiionwatha’s pilgrimage amongst the nations and wanted none of it for his people. As Aiionwatha continued to speak his words of unification and lasting peace, Dekanawida noticed that snakes moved within the hair of the great chief, whispering Flint’s twisted words above anything Aiionwatha and Dekanawida could say or do.

Aiionwatha was resolved to give up when Dekanawida suggested he try one more time. While Aiionwatha spoke, imploring reason, Dekanawida stood behind the great chief, humming a soothing Onondaga tune that relaxed him, and began to comb the snakes from his hair, separating Flint’s influence from Atotarho’s ears. The snakes fell to the ground in cinders and ashes with each combining, leaving twisted singe marks on the ground around him—a testament to Flint’s convoluted maniacal ways. The truth of Aiionwatha’s words could finally be heard, and the unification was complete, uniting the original five nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—to a common goal and purpose. The Great Law provided a method for other nations to join and the Tuscarora were the first to do so. Like that bundle of arrows, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy became strong.

But Spruce had a higher purpose in mind.

In their slumber, he visited each nation in the guise of Dekanawida. He moved amongst them as they slept, gifting the people with the ability to engage Flint and his twisted beasts. This gift, however, would come in the form of preternatural powers that would manifest themselves in unique and powerful ways. Not every man—or later, woman—would answer its call.

At first, Spruce chose warriors whom he observed showed the most promise; who were sound of heart and character and ultimately would not abuse the powerful sacred knowledge given to them by the Creator through the Peacemaker.

So, the Tewakenonhnè or Guardians, as they came to be known, trained under Spruce’s tutelage in this way. As a warrior moved into his declining years, a new able-bodied young man of good mind and a great heart was called from the village into the Guardianship to learn its sacred knowledge.

Seeing the people had taken up the cause for themselves, Spruce decided to take his final leave from us. He gave us every tool we would need to succeed. The rest, he instructed, was up to us.

As he left, he approached the Faithkeeper of the Mohawk nation, and gave him a special wampum belt. Not of the white and indigo beads we crafted of our own, this belt, silver and shimmering like the ripples of a lake, is the most powerful and sacred of them all.

Gifted with this final tool to assist him in managing the Guardianship, he became the Guardian’s first Central. I say to you now, as that Central, I bear the responsibility of the Guardian’s care, welfare, and their training. I am not their master. I am their caretaker, their counselor, and their elder voice when need arises in the Grand Council for the Guardians to be heard.

“This is the way of the people; this is how the Tewakenonhnè came to be.”

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Meet the Author

SA “Baz” Collins hails from the San Francisco Bay Area where he lives with his husband, and a Somali cat named Zorro. A classically trained singer/actor (under a different name), Baz knows a good yarn when he sees it.

Based on years of his work as an actor, Baz specializes in character study pieces. It is more important for him that the reader comes away with a greater understanding of the characters and the reasons they make the decisions they do, rather than the situations they are in. It is this deep dive into their manners, their experiences and how they process the world around them that make up the body of Mr. Collins’ work.

You can find his works at sacollins.com and as a co-host/producer of the wrotepodcast.com series.

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