No Easy Catch by Jaqueline Snowe

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author giveaways rafflecotper giveaways, books about baseball, Jaqueline Snowe, YA/NA Romance, young adult romance books books about Native Americans

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jaqueline Snowe will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A jock and a party girl teaming up—makes total sense, right? Actually, maybe…

Ambar Hernandez is a senior communications major who has no idea what she wants to do in life. She spends most of her time working on her blog after gaining a lot of readers with a story she wrote junior year and…never followed up on. The last thing she expects is an angry jock accusing her of involvement in a scam that could shake the college to its foundations.

Jeff Maddow should be focused on his senior season of baseball and not the suspicious activity happening on the team. It’s his time to shine and get drafted, but after seeing incriminating evidence, he can’t not investigate. And his first lead is the campus blogger…who’s related to a name in the document he saw.

Ambar’s been coasting, writing about campus fashion and hook-ups rather than politics and economics, but when Jeff shows up at her place spouting wild accusations, she agrees to help him just to prove the stubborn athlete wrong.

Long nights, impassioned arguments, close quarters…both Jeff and Ambar find opposites more than attract when things heat up.

Read an Excerpt

Everything would be blown. The story, my cover, all of it, if he recognized me That was the entire point of dressing up—to be just another girl flirting in a bar.

Shit.

How do I escape this? Should I run out? Pretend I don’t see him? Throw my coffee in his face? A ploy…something to throw him off my scent. That’s it.

Without thinking a second longer, I marched past Max and up to Jeff. “Hey, baby. I missed you.”

He didn’t have time to react before I threw my free arm around his neck and dragged his face down to mine. His lips were cold and hard, not unlike his reluctance to trust me. In all the ways I’d secretly fantasized about kissing Jeff, none of them were like this, stiff and awkward in a coffee shop. It was three seconds of agonizing embarrassment before something shifted. Awareness fluttered in my lower abdomen when he placed his hands on my hips, drawing me closer to him. His lips weren’t hard anymore. His entire body softened against me and he kissed me.

Like, a holy-shit,-my-crush-likes-me type of kiss. He opened his mouth slightly and teased mine with his tongue, sending a bolt of attraction through me that had my thoughts getting fuzzy. He tasted like mint and smelled like fresh air—a combination lethal enough to make me forget why we were kissing.

But it didn’t matter in those seconds where our mouths were connected and his hands were on me. I felt that kiss all the way down to my cold toes and I curled them in my boots when he slid his tongue deeper into my mouth. It wasn’t until I groaned that he stopped. When he broke our connection, it was a rush of overwhelming realization that we were in public and the kiss wasn’t real.

He stared down at me with his gray eyes swirling with just as many confusing emotions as I had. “Wh…hey?”

My throat was clogged with words I wanted to say, but the force of that kiss made me speechless. Instead, I grabbed his gloved hand and dragged him out of the coffee shop and onto the sidewalk. “Max was in there and he recognized me from Tuesday. I panicked.”

“Your plan was to kiss the hell out of me instead?” he asked, an amused grin forming on his face. His lips were a little red and it brought me an insane amount of pride to know I was the reason why. “Tell me how that plan helped.”

About the Author:

Jaqueline Snowe lives in Arizona where the “dry heat” really isn’t that bad. She identifies as a full-blown Gryffindor and prefers drinking coffee all hours of the day. She is the mother to two fur-babies who don’t realize they aren’t humans and a new mom to her adorable son. Her life revolves around balancing her day job in education and her incessant need to write and explore the world with her wonderful baseball-loving husband.

Blog: http://www.jaquelinesnowe.com/blog
Website: http://www.jaquelinesnowe.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jaquelinesnowe
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jaquelinesnowe
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jaquelinesnowe

Buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bw2JMO
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Catch-Romance-Chasers-ebook/dp/B08231BHSD/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no-easy-catch-jaqueline-snowe/1135212198

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Convincing You (Sensing Series #2) by J.M. Adele

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Adult books, author giveaways, rafflecopter giveaways, romantic suspense, Romantic Suspense books, Supernatural Romantic Supernatural Romantic Suspense

Note:  The Author has put Convincing You ON SALE for $.99 through the end of next week with all proceeds going to the Australian Bushfire Appeal.

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. J.M. Adele will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

We were connected in more ways than one—I knew it when we met.
What I didn’t know was how close he would bring me to death.
And that death would be a blessing.

Andrea has always been able to tap into messages from somewhere beyond. When she meets Ben, an unrelenting force draws them together. But it’s going to take some convincing to help Ben realise their potential. Ben never thought his friend’s little sister would be anything more than a nuisance. He was wrong. She’d always been so much more. And now, their bond could be severed and her pulse silenced forever.

*Recommended for readers 18+ due to mature content.*

Read an Excerpt

“You’ve gone quiet. What’s wrong?”

I flicked a glance at his nose, knowing that if I looked him in the eye he might see something I wasn’t ready for him to see. Something I was trying to understand for myself before I admitted it to anyone else. I wouldn’t be admitting it to him, that was for sure.

“Hm? What? No, nothing. I’m just hungry.” I hid my hands under the table. Way to play it cool.

One of Ben’s brows inched up.

Tapping a finger on the edge of my seat, I ignored the weight of his stare. The silence was like a wedgie that I couldn’t get rid of.

I cleared my throat and aimed for casual conversation. “So, are you a league convert yet?”

He scoffed. “Never. I was only helping out a friend.”

“If you hate it so much, why’d you do it?”

“I don’t hate it. I’m just loyal to my code.”

“Plenty of players switch.” I picked my brain trying to remember the names Dad had said at the game. “Like, you know, that guy, The King. What’s his name?”

“Wally Lewis?”

“Yeah, him.” I think. He was the only player I could think of.

“Just ’cause The King switched doesn’t mean I have to.”

“Fair enough.”

Ben stood by his convictions. I liked that. My eyes drifted sideways in a bid for some reprieve from his gaze. Two tables away, the boys were slapping each other’s hands, doing some customised shake thing, and laughing like loons.

“They’re good mates.” Ben’s comment brought me right back to those crystal blues.

“They are.” I tilted my head. “Why are you friends with my brother? Seriously?”

His lips quirked. “Stewart’s all right.”

“He’s different with his friends, I guess.”

He hooked an arm behind his seat, twisting his chest towards me. “I know he can be a dick sometimes. He has a weird way of getting attention. He means well.”

The fact that he was defending my brother endeared him to me even more.

“Do you play any sport?” Ben scratched behind his ear like he was uncomfortable talking about Stewart.

I was happy to change the subject. “I dance.”

“You dance?” His brows rose as he leaned back a little. “Like ballet?”

“God, no. I’m not graceful enough for that. Hip-hop is my thang.”

“Your thang?”

“Yeah. Like this.” I jumped out of my seat and gave him a demo—legs popping, arms locking, all while Nelly Furtado and Timbaland sang about promiscuity in my head.

His mouth dropped open and his eyes bugged out.

Am I that bad? I slid back onto my seat, heat infusing my cheeks.

“You’re good.”

Pulling my shoulders back, I puffed out my chest. “Thank you.”

“No, I really mean that.” He blinked, swallowing.

I relaxed against the back of my chair. Sincerity. Another tick on the list of his good characteristics. I was sure there had to be some negatives.

I already liked so many things about him. His commitment. His discipline. His arse. But if I told him, I’d scare him away. He wouldn’t get it. Not for another few years at least. I wasn’t sure how I knew that either. I just did. The thing was, I didn’t understand how or why it was going to take a few years. And that worried me. What was about to go down that I’d have to wait so damn long to have him by my side?

The air grew so thick, my lungs had trouble dragging it in. I shuffled my butt, fighting against the unbearable tug urging my eyes to connect with his. “It was nice of you to help out the opposition, even though they couldn’t find a uniform that fit you.”

He placed his arms on the table, his elbow bumping mine. It was the final yank in the tug-of-war. My gaze snapped to his crystal blue stare.

A hint of a smirk played on his lips. “It’s no biggie.” Deliberately bumping my elbow again, he set his grin free.

He’s laughing at me! My mouth popped open before clamping shut.

The rest of our group approached through the glass, trays in hand. Their arrival would mean the end of our conversation. Last chance to make an impression. “Yeah, you’re right. Their team lost. You were no help at all. I don’t know why Dad whinged that you’re not a league player. Seriously, you sucked. Stick to what you know, Benji.”

Ben’s grin dropped off his face, and his eyebrows jumped high as he barked a laugh.

Like idiots, we grinned at each other, and something more passed between us. That thing that I couldn’t yet define, but saw behind the gaze reflecting back my smiling face. It was so familiar. I’d seen it before. I knew it.

Unbelievably, his face aged ten years in ten seconds. Suddenly he was a man with the beginnings of wrinkles fanning from his eyes. And I was … huge. I checked myself out. A wedding ring dug into my swollen finger. My stomach was round and full. And moving. We were both naked. Naked!

My gaze snapped back to his, finding his face in transition again. Light reflected off his bright blue irises, splitting into a prism of colour before swirling and blending into a muddy dark brown. A colour that could swallow you whole if you let it.

“Emmeline.” I saw his mouth move, but it wasn’t Ben. I was staring at a young man with scruffy brown hair, sweat and dirt smeared on his neck. “Emmeline,” he pleaded.

Who was Emmeline? Who was he?

******

The Author has put Convincing You ON SALE for $.99 through the end of next week with all proceeds to go to the Australian Bushfire Appeal.

About the Author:

Author of smart, sexy characters, J.M. Adele loves to flit between the dark and light sides of romance. Somewhere along the way an almost constant procession of imaginary characters settled into her thoughts and she picked up a pen to share their stories.

She lives in Queensland with her three greatest loves, her children. When she’s not writing or being a mum, you might find her hiking up a mountain, singing in the car when nobody is looking, or curled up with a good book.

Author Links:

Website – https://www.jmadele.org/
Newsletter – https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/g1p2t7
Reader Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/JMsGemsters/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/authorjmadele
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/j.m.adele/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/JMAdeleBooks
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com.au/jmadele/pins/
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/JMAdele
BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/j-m-adele
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14553832.J_M_Adele
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/J-M-Adele/e/B0174OOYJC

Buy Links:

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49457085-convincing-you
Universal Link – https://books2read.com/u/b6k6K0
Amazon – (Preorder) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082WFS6KJ/

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My WIP – Another Morgan Book

Tags

getting old, Linda Nightingale, Sinners' Opera, vampires, work in progress

Mr. Piano Man is a story told in a frame, beginning in 1987, flashing back to 1941 during the Blitz in England, then coming to the present for the ending of the story.  I started it thinking it would be a novella, but it has grown into a book! It’s a story that has been brewing in my mind since about the time Sinners’ Opera was written. Here’s an excerpt.

Chapter 1

Charleston, South Carolina, 1987

Pity the beautiful old women all the more for they have lost the most.

She came into the bar, looking very ill-at-ease and out-of-place. As lost as she might seem, she was a classic beauty, her bone structure sculpted and fine. Her eyes were large, ringed with thick black lashes, and her slender nose straight. The hair in an elegant coil at her nape had once been coal black. Now, pure white streaks wove through the ebony, shining in the lament light. Excusing her way to the only vacant seat at the piano bar, she spoke to no one. She gave me a fleeting look,  sat, and strung her handbag over the back of the tall stool.  The other patrons of the establishment gave her scant notice. After all, she was old.

But as I watched her, something dim and distant flickered in memory.

I wanted to speak to her but couldn’t stop playing in the midst of a song.  Besides, she appeared distant. What had made her cross the threshold of a piano bar on a cobbled side street in Charleston?  She glanced at the man to her left, drowning his sorrows in scotch, then at the  women to her right, singing the lyrics to “Mr. Piano Man”.

A spotlight pointed to my hands, but no one really paid a  blind bit of notice. Tonight, I was Mr. Piano Man. What did the patrons see? A young man with long hair and a pianist’s hands? A man down on his luck, playing a piano to keep body and soul together? I was the former but not the latter. I didn’t need the tips in the fishbowl atop the scarred baby grand. Over the centuries to come, I trusted my estates would serve me as well as they’d done in the past.

Soon, the time would come for me to stage my own death and resurrection again. These things came to try vampires as the years passed but didn’t take their toll. My hair was still thick and blonde; my blue eyes young and bright—too bright if I dropped the Glamour of a normal man. By the calendar’s reckoning, I should be seventy-one years old, but no one in this wayside bar had a clue this ‘lifetime’ began in 1916. In truth, I’m closing in on three-hundred fifty-five years young.

The scent of blood bedeviled me. For nights, I hadn’t fed, and I was starved. Each different fragrance tempted me sorely. My mouth watered, hunger stretching my nerves as tight as the piano strings.

Tonight, my life wasn’t as I’d planned. Since 1897, I’d treasured a dream that had yet to come true. At least the piano was in tune, even if I wasn’t.

 

#1 Preditors & Editors Poll – Sinners’ Opera

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All Other Novels, Critters and Readers Poll results, Linda Nightingale, paranormal romance books, Preditors and Editors Poll Winners, Sinners' Opera, The Wild Rose Press

The results are in. Sinners Opera is Best Novel in All Other Novels!  #1 thanks to all who voted — THANK YOU!!!

 

Preditors’ & Editors Poll

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books about vampires, contests, Linda Nightingale, paranormal romance novels, Preditors & Editors Poll, readers polls, Sinners' Opera, vampire books, voting

Sinners’ Opera (my latest book and the book of my heart) is nominated in the Preditors & Editors Poll in All Other Novels.  Right now, it is #1.  After the holidays, the voting will get serious.  Would you please vote before Jan. 14 at:   https://critters.org/predpoll/novel.shtml

 

I’d really, really appreciate it!

Linda