RELEASE DAY BLITZ & REVIEW - Where Good Girls Go to Die (The Good Girls Series #1) by Holly Renee

Author: Holly Renee
Title: Where Good Girls Go to Die
Series: The Good Girls #1
Release Date: April 13, 2017

It was a bad idea from the beginning.

He was my brother's best friend and the definition of unavailable.

But I didn't care.

I had loved him for as long as I could remember.

He was worth the risk. He was worth everything.

But then he broke my heart as easily as I fell for him. He watched me fall, spiraling out of control, and as I reached for him, he wasn't there to catch me.

So I ran.

Four years later, I never expected to see him again.

He was still my brother's best friend, and he was more unavailable than ever.

He looked every bit the bad boy I knew he was, covered in tattoos and a crooked smile.

Guarding my heart from him was top priority because Parker James was where good girls go to die.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't a good girl anymore.

This is my first Holly Renee book, but it definitely won't be my last! It was so easy to get caught up in this story, I was able to read the entire book in about 3 hours. During a work day. But I digress.

So this is Parker's and Liv's story, and it's everything you think young love should be, but with the added twist of a jealous ex, a bachelor party and being found at your unconventional place of work and subsequently rescued. This story is told in flashbacks between 4 years ago and present time. I gotta give it up to Brandon, Parker's best friend. I could see how he would be voted class clown, but he really had insight into Parker and his feelings, and made no bones about it. When he got serious, you knew it was with the best intention to get Parker to see the light. And he was always right. I loved that both Brandon and Staci accepted Liv right away, even if Brandon was devious when he offered a job to Liv.

As much as it really wasn't important to the overall story, I do wish we'd gotten some more insight to Parker's current relationship: how in the world did they meet and manage to get as far in their relationship as they did? One thing I got tired of quickly was Parker's reaction whenever Liv would interact with other guys, so I was all "thank you baby jesus" when she finally called him on his behavior. But the best was Staci really setting him straight. The caveman schtick is cute, but if you're not on the market, you lose the right to make comments about how someone else is living their life.

So Holly Renee has earned herself another fan, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mason, Brandon and even Staci get their own stories sometime in the future.

When Parker finally walked in the door, I could feel the darkness that surrounded him.

He set his keys down on the counter and stared at me from across the room.

“You’re still here.” His voice was soft and just hearing it seemed to calm some of my anxiety.

“I told you I would be.”

He nodded his head, but I could see how lost he was in his eyes.

“Are you okay?”

He shook his head and looked away from me.

“I’m just tired. I’m going to jump in the shower. Okay?”

I nodded my head and he made his way up the stairs without a backward glance.

As I watched his back disappear up the stairs, my chest ached. He was hurting. It was clear to see it, but I didn’t know how to make it better. I didn’t know how to make him let me back in.

I walked up the stairs and I heard the shower kick on as I entered his room. He had left the door cracked open, and even though I knew I was invading his privacy, I stood at the door and watched him. His forehead pressed against the shower wall, the cascade of water raining down on him.

I stripped my clothes off until I was completely bare, and I stepped into the shower behind him. He didn’t lift his head when he heard the shower door, but I watched the muscles of his back tense.

“Livy, what are you doing?”

“Parker, please.” I ran my hands down his back before pressing my chest against him.

“I’m sorry, Livy. I’m just fucked up in my head right now. I just need… I don’t know. I need to be alone.”

“Let me help you,” I whispered before I pressed my lips against his back.

He shook his head, water flying around him. “I’m just so mad at myself. I’m so fucking angry.” He slammed his fist against the shower wall, and I wrapped my arms around his chest.

“Take it out on me, Parker. Let me help you let go.”

He turned toward me, finally looking me in the eyes. “I love you, Livy.”

“I know,” I nodded my head, “but fuck me like you don’t.”

Bookaholic, firm believer in grand gestures, and obsessed with happily ever afters.

Holly Renee is from the small town of Maryville, TN where she was born and raised. She currently lives with her husband and fur baby, Luna. (Yes. She was named after Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.)

Holly Renee is the author of her debut novel Letting Go.

During the day, Holly spends her time as a nurse, but once her shift ends, she falls deep into her passion of reading and writing.

  

COVER REVEAL - How You Get the Girl (Theme Song Duet #2) by Jessica Florence

Author: Jessica Florence
Title: How You Get The Girl
Series: Theme Song Duet #2
Release Date: April 24, 2017

As Hollywood’s hottest actor, getting a woman in my bed is never a challenge.

Then I spotted her at a bar—she wanted a man for the night, and I jumped at the chance to fill the role. I gave her Joel Kline’s best, and she smacked my pretty face.

But don’t worry, that’s not the end of our story. Her brand of crazy inspired me, and I had to see her again, no matter the cost.

Now, Alessandra Rose is my lead makeup artist for the next four months.

Literally, her job is to touch me every day for the duration of filming. Sounds like a win, right?

Nope, she stops me at every hint of a flirt. I’m in uncharted waters for once.

Joel Kline’s famous techniques to get the girl are failing me. It’s no longer about those sexy Brazilian lips, or her fiery spirit that gives me a hard on.

It’s about making her banana pancakes after she spends the night in my home.

It’s about knocking down those walls around her, claiming her as mine.

She’s going to fight me, of course, unwilling to accept that it’s not all an act.

But I’m not going anywhere; that’s how you get the girl.

*May be read as standalone*

Jessica Florence,

Writer of Alpha Males & Fairy Tales
Author <3 PotterHead <3 Movie Geek Extraordinaire.

When she's not writing her next invigorating story. You can find her running her own business, and spending time with her husband and daughter in southwest Florida.
Jessica loves to interact with her readers, find her on:

  

COVER REVEAL - Revelry by Kandi Steiner

Title: Revelry

Author: Kandi Steiner

Release Date: April 20, 2017

Add to TBR

From the bestselling author of Weightless and A Love Letter to Whiskey

Wren Ballard is trying to find herself.

She never expected to be divorced at twenty-seven, but now that the court date has passed, it’s official. The paperwork is final. Her feelings on it aren’t.

Spending the summer in a small mountain town outside Seattle is exactly what she needs. The peaceful scenery is a given, the cat with the croaky meow is a surprise, but the real kicker? A broody neighbor with nice arms, a strange reputation, and absolutely no interest in her.

Anderson Black is perfectly fine being lost.

He doesn’t care about the town’s new resident — he’s too busy fighting his own demons. But when he’s brought face to face with Wren, he can see her still-fresh wounds from a mile away. What he doesn’t see coming is his need to know who put them there — or his desperation to mend them.

Sometimes getting lost is the way to find yourself. Sometimes healing only adds a new scar. And sometimes the last place you expected to be is exactly where you find home.

I stared at the piles of bags, debating which to tackle first before slowly loading them onto each arm one by one. Once I was red-faced and struggling and decided there was, in fact, no way I’d get them all in one trip, I turned to make my way inside the cabin. But I stopped short.

There was a man at the end of my driveway.

He was just standing there, staring at me, a large, rusted toolbox in one hand and rolled up sheet of paper in the other. Everything about him was hard — the bend in his brows, the edge of his jaw, the line of scruff that framed it. And because I was me, of course I noticed what he was wearing, and it was the first time in a long time that I’d seen someone who dressed for efficiency, not for style. His jeans were worn, but not dirty, with plenty of pockets that I could tell were each used in their own way. He donned a simple, deep red thermal with sleeves pushed up to his elbows and slight stains that ran down his chest and abdomen, and a charcoal gray hat sat low over his eyes, shielding them from the sun.

He was tan, and even from the distance his eyes sparked against the warm hue of his skin. They were bright — blue, maybe? Or green? I couldn’t be sure, and I let his potent appearance mesmerize me for just a moment more before I shifted, hoisting the bags in my right hand up enough for me to attempt a half wave.

If possible, his brow lowered further, and he simply stalked off, clearing the view of my driveway in seconds.

I frowned.

“Well, hello to you, too.”

Kandi Steiner is a bestselling author and whiskey connoisseur living in Tampa, FL. Best known for writing “emotional rollercoaster” stories, she loves bringing flawed characters to life and writing about real, raw romance — in all its forms. No two Kandi Steiner books are the same, and if you’re a lover of angsty, emotional, and inspirational reads, she’s your gal.

An alumna of the University of Central Florida, Kandi graduated with a double major in Creative Writing and Advertising/PR with a minor in Women’s Studies. She started writing back in the 4th grade after reading the first Harry Potter installment. In 6th grade, she wrote and edited her own newspaper and distributed to her classmates. Eventually, the principal caught on and the newspaper was quickly halted, though Kandi tried fighting for her “freedom of press.” She took particular interest in writing romance after college, as she has always been a die hard hopeless romantic, and likes to highlight all the challenges of love as well as the triumphs.

When Kandi isn’t writing, you can find her reading books of all kinds, talking with her extremely vocal cat, and spending time with her friends and family. She enjoys live music, traveling, anything heavy in carbs, beach days, movie marathons, craft beer and sweet wine — not necessarily in that order.

 

RELEASE BLITZ - Whiskey Lullaby by Jennifer Rebecca

Author: Jennifer Rebecca
Title: Whiskey Lullabye
Series: Southern Heartbeats, Vol. 2
Release Date: March 27, 2017

Sixteen years ago Aliza Wilson met the love of her life. He was everything Aliza had ever hoped for in a man, kind, generous and he gave her a beautiful life. But fate had other plans for her future. Plans that changed her life irrevocably. Now Aliza must face a new fate, and that scares her more than anything.

Sixteen years ago Holden “Holt” Stone found the woman of his dreams. She was utter perfection. But his best-friend got her first. Now he must sit on the sidelines and watch the woman he wanted, be happy with someone else. Holt is no stranger to pain and heartache, hell that came with his service in the Marine Corps, he's no stranger to death, but watching someone he loves struggle to move on is a new kind of hell.

Can Aliza and Holt find a way to fix their broken pieces, before it’s too late?

Whiskey Lullabye is the second volume in the Southern Heartbeats Series and is the continuation of Stand. This is Aliza’s story.

  

The warm, late spring sun is shining through the window when I wake up softly this morning. Sam is pressed up behind me. Close enough, I can tell he’s feeling playful. His left hand is at my breast and I feel his morning beard across my cheek as he leans down to kiss the side of my neck, just under my ear. I hear the soft smile in Sam’s morning scratchy voice as he says, “Morning, baby,” I love quiet moments like this.

“Good morning, handsome,” I give back as Sam’s hand trails over my belly. Softer than it was when we first met when I was young and in college, but it did carry his two babies, so he loves it, and moves down to greener pastures. I rock into him. Not once in the last fifteen years, have I gotten tired of him. Sam grabs my long, dark blonde ponytail tipping my head back so he can thoroughly kiss me. I love his kisses. The soft sweet ones, the teasing ones, and the ones like this that get down to business. I moan into his mouth and Sam meets it with a growl of his own.

Things are just starting to get good when I hear two little voices chanting down the hallway, “Let’s go Blazers. Let’s go Blazers. Let’s Goooooo!!!! The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water let the mother effer burn!!!!” Sam’s forehead is pressed down on my shoulder and his arms are wrapped tight around my belly. So tight, I can feel him shaking with laughter.

“Sam!” I screech when the shock of my precious angels chanting an inappropriate song from the 80’s. I know exactly where they got it, that rat! I reach over to swat the stinker with a pillow from my side of the bed, but he’s already moving. Throwing his shorts on the floor as he struts to the shower. Letting me see exactly what I will be missing today and I will be missing it. Damn, my man is good looking.

“What?!” Sam says on the run. “Soccer waits for no one!!!” he’s laughing as he runs into the shower.

***

Twenty minutes later, my girls are pounding pancakes and bacon with tall glasses of orange juice. Fueling up for the big game. Six and under soccer is no joke. Sam walks in and I feel my breath catch in my throat. These are the moments I live for. My kids doing normal everyday things, the sexiest man I know, who after all this time, still looks at me like he won the lottery.

I catch Sam’s secret smile as he walks over to the coffee pot and pours himself a cup. I catch a kiss on the cheek as he passes.

“I’m sure going to miss you guys today,” I say and it’s true. I never miss a game, but my best girlfriend from college is coming in today and I need to get to the market and prep dinner, put clean linens on the guest bed, and pick up any wayward toys that have made their way back out of the girls’ rooms. Really, the things I need to do without a five and a three year old under foot.

“Don’t even worry about it,” Sam reassures me. “We’ll be fine today, right girls?” who throw their fists in the air with a “Heck, yeah!” Sam’s influence and personality are all over those two. Sometimes, I think I was just the oven that baked the cake. “Plus, it’ll be totally worth it at supper time when I get to dive into your famous pot roast and green beans,” He says while patting his stomach which is just as flat as it was at twenty one when I got my first glimpse of him.

“All right girls, you about done?” I ask them. “You don’t want to be late for the big game,” I smile at the three most important people in the world to me. This moment, like so many others, is why I breathe, why I wake up in the morning.

Sam gives me one more, soft kiss and the girls each hug me fiercely on their way out the door. Those three are going to have such a fun day.

I shut the door behind them and go back to the kitchen to clean up my mess from breakfast. I love to cook and I am not the cleanest cook either, but my family loves it. And is there really anything better than cooking for the people you love? Nope, I didn’t think so. At least not to me.

After I have put the last of the dishes away, I clean up the girls’ toys and pajamas they’ve left all over in their wake for soccer glory. I make the beds and wipe down the bathroom counters. I throw on jeans and my favorite slouchy sweater. I have just enough time to run to the market and get home before Hannah gets here when there is a knock at the door. I run down the stairs with a smile on my face. Sam is amazing, but he’s a mess sometimes. Always forgetting something.

“What did you guys forget this time?” I shout as I throw open the door. But it’s not Sam I see standing there. It’s his best friend, Holt, and by the devastated look on his face, I know why. Everything changes in a moment.

Jennifer is a 33 year old lover of words, all words: the written, the spoken, the sung (even poorly), the sweet, the funny, and even the four letter variety. She is a native of San Diego, California where she grew up reading the Brownings and Rebecca with her mother and Clifford and the Dog who Glowed in the Dark with her dad, much to her mother’s dismay.

Jennifer is a graduate of California State University San Marcos where she studied Criminology and Justice Studies. She is also a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

10 years ago, she was swept off her feet by her very own sailor. Today, they are happily married and the parents of a 7 year old and 6 year old twins. She lives in East Texas where she can often be found on the soccer fields, drawing with her children, or reading. Jennifer is convinced that if she puts her fitbit on one of the dogs, she might finally make her step goals. She loves a great romance, an alpha hero, and lots and lots of laughter.