Books that live forever in your heart and dreams

Saturday, August 31, 2013

A Selfish Moment by Tanya Miranda

A Selfish Moment
by Tanya Miranda

Jubilee is a blackout drunk. Everett is drunk with love.
Can Jubilee remember their perfect evening together?
Will Everett wait and see?


Available at:  Amazon / Smashwords / AppleBarnes & Noble / Sony / Kobo


Book Description
Jubilee Ray wakes up Saturday morning in a strange bed with a handsome guy asleep at her side and no memory of how she got there. Everett Salerno wakes up ecstatic about the incredible night he spent with Jubilee. She can’t wait to get out of his apartment and he can’t wait to start their romance. Jubilee is a blackout drunk. Everett is drunk with love.  
Their one-night-stand ends almost as quickly as it began, however fate has other plans in mind. In the next three days filled with impossible coincidences, humiliating moments, and mouthwatering recollections, Everett can’t find the right moment to express his intentions and Jubilee can’t let go of her past long enough to really give Everett a chance.
Neither Jubilee nor Everett can let go of that first night together. Was that one perfect evening a fluke, or was it a preview of something greater than they ever imagined?

* * * * *

Excerpt from A Selfish Moment
Chapter 1 – Jubilee – 9:00 A.M. on Saturday

The bass drum pounding in my temples seems trivial when my stomach gurgles up a drop of bile into my mouth. I gasp quietly the instant I realize I’m completely naked and lying on someone else’s bed. It’s not until I try recalling last night’s events that I’m paralyzed by a single, dreadful fact: I can’t remember how I got here. 
When I slide out from under the warm comforter onto the cold hardwood floor, the bedframe creaks and I freeze in place, my body completely exposed. I quickly scan the room, my eyes out of focus, and spot a man asleep on the other side of the bed, on top of the same blankets, wearing checkered pajama pants and a white tee shirt. My eyes finally cooperate and I study his face. 
How do I know him? Who is he? Concentrate. 
This pillow is hardly big enough to cover my breasts, but I use it anyway and begin the hunt for my clothes. I tiptoe out of the bedroom and pray to the heavens to quickly find my things and make an unnoticed exit from the premises. 
Think. Think. What’s his name? What happened last night? 
My headache spirals left and right with every step, the walls from the bedroom guiding me forward with each nudge against my shoulder. I take long, deep breaths and try to remember his name, our conversations, anything concrete from the last twelve hours. The haze clears slowly. I remember meeting Sophie at The China Blue Lounge. She had a blind date with some guy, and this was his friend. Her date was running late, so Sophie and I had a drink. 
That was it. 
I avoid alcohol like the plague for fear that I may blackout like I did ten years ago. All it took was a shot of vodka and I woke up in a dorm room I didn’t recognize, wearing someone else’s clothes. I haven’t had any alcohol since. I thought I was safe last night with just one drink, convinced my body had built up some sort of resistance by now. I can’t recall how much more I had after that one drink. 
In the thick fog, I see the moment Sophie introduced me to her date’s friend. He repeated my name with his lips stretching at the vowels, “Juuu-bi-leeee". It was slow and deliberate, or maybe that’s just the way my drunken mind recorded the moment. He was boyishly handsome with sunken blue eyes, and a curvy smile that made me so weak I had to look away. Too handsome, I remember thinking as I pulled my hand out of his grip. As much as I tried to avoid them, I was drawn to those deadly blue eyes gazing straight at me. He had me laughing after five minutes, and I remember placing my hand on his arm confidently, repeatedly, as if he was my date, as if he was interested in me, as if we were alone. 
I trudge down what feels like the longest corridor in New York City and finally reach a spacious living room with enormous windows stretching from the floor to the ceiling. Although no one from the distant skyline could possibly see me across the river, I still cover myself with the tiny pillow and crouch unsteadily behind his furniture. My raincoat is splayed on the floor next to a black leather sofa across the room. With two graceless hops I cross his area rug and pick up my jacket.  It covers me enough to stand straight up and get a better view of the apartment and my escape route. I tug the edge of the raincoat just under my butt as I inch my way around his coffee table, still unable to find my clothes.
After a few minutes, random facts and visions appear in my head: we had several shots; we took a cab to Ninety-Something Street; we kissed in the staircase leading up to his apartment; I’m walking around in my bra; he is holding scissors….why scissors?
“Good morning.”
The corner of the console table jabs me in my thigh when I turn around to face the voice greeting me. My bump was hard enough to knock a tray of loose change over the edge of the table, sending ten thousand coins crashing to our feet. After the last tiny penny spins to a complete stop, I whisper an apology.
“Leave it. I’ll pick it up later,” he says.
He smiles at me from the doorway to his kitchen, and I turn my body completely away from him. The sharp motion causes me to pinch my eyelids shut, pressing them against my eyeballs that feel as if they want to pop out of their sockets. He asks if I would like some coffee in a tone so casual that anyone listening would believe he has been asking me the same questions for years. 
I’ve lost total control of my verbal abilities, shocked by his coolness and how ridiculously attractive he is, even with his messy bed head, so I simply nod.  I gawk like a high school girl as he brushes the wavy strands of short hair back from his forehead with one stroke of his right hand.
I don’t like the effect he has on me. The best approach to this situation is to find my clothes and leave. It was a one night stand, and God knows I needed one, but that’s it. Maybe it’s best that I don’t remember anything else from last night - who knows what embarrassing things I may have done. If I were anywhere near as uncollected as I am now, I don’t want to know about it.
Isaac…that’s it…Isaac Something. 
My jeans, bra, underwear, and socks are folded neatly in a pile on an antique leather chair placed between two windows. Where’s my black turtleneck? 
“How do you like your coffee?” His confident voice carries from the kitchen across the living room. “Milk and sugar?”
“Sure.” 
Where is that damned turtleneck? I lower my head to the cream area rug to look underneath the leather arm chair. I wince at the throbbing in my forehead. The world moves in slow motion as I raise my head up and push to my feet.
“I make a banging cheese omelet, if you’re interested.” He walks out of the kitchen with two black mugs and sets them down on the glass coffee table in front of the sofa. “What are you looking for?” he asks.
“My turtleneck.” 
He chuckles and leans back on the couch. There’s that delicious smile again. 
“It’s in the trash. We cut it with the scissors.”
“What? Why would I want to cut up my own shirt?”
“It was symbolic, your idea, don’t you remember? We -”
“No!” I interrupt. “I’m a forgetful drunk. I black out. I don’t remember much of anything that happened last night.”
His radiant smile disappears and he apologizes. I feel guilty for lashing out at him, for all I know he was probably a perfect gentleman and I was a drunken mess. 
He moves to the edge of the couch. “You wanted to free yourself of sexually oppressive clothing. You took my scissors and cut your turtleneck from the bottom up.” He narrows his eyes. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
I sit down on the armchair opposite the sofa and take a deep breath, my eyes glancing between him and the area rug. “We danced slowly…we kissed…” I shrug my shoulders and gulp so loud that I’m sure he heard it. 
“Wow,” he says, sinking back in his seat. “That’s sucks. You don’t remember anything?”
I begin putting on my socks and shoes with intense concentration. “I’m sorry. I never drink. Last night was…a mistake. I’m just going to leave and save us a lot of embarrassment, okay?” I stand and put on my scarf with slow, deliberate motions, my eyes focus on the ground in an attempt to control the dizziness. I inhale deeply and blow out a large breath of air to ease the nausea.
He sits upright on the sofa again. “It’s not okay. Last night was not a mistake. So you were a bit drunk, so what? We…we talked about our careers, movies, relationships, and our families…do you remember any of that?”
“Isaac, please, I’m a blackout drunk. I remember only a few details, not much really, but my head hurts and I just want to put this night behind me.” 
He closes his eyes, exhales, and glares up at me. He speaks in an octave lower than before. “My name is not Isaac.”
He sobers me with the menacing look on his face. I bite back tears of humiliation, and with swift movements I grab my bag and head for the door. 


About the Author

After a successful career in the I.T. industry, Tanya quit her job to spend more time with her family and soon rediscovered her love of writing. Whenever she’s not attending a piano lesson, baseball game, softball game, soccer match, or jiu-jitsu event, she writes science fiction, romance, adventure, and ironic short stories of cats reincarnated into birds. You can find her other work at http://www.tanyamiranda.com.


Author Q & A

  • What’s your book about?
A Selfish Moment is a love story. Jubilee and Everett are both wingmen to their best friends’ first date. Just a few minutes after they meet they are inseparable, and spend an amazing night together. The next morning, Jubilee wakes up remembering very little about the guy lying next to her and Everett is totally in love. They spend the next three days trying to avoid and forget about that one night and fail miserably. Coincidences keep pushing them together and they soon realize they have to really let themselves trust one another, give each other a fighting chance, in order to start their relationship. But Jubilee has a troubled past and a five-year-old daughter to think about, so she finds it hard to trust anyone including herself. Everett has to decide if he wants to be with someone so complex and if Jubilee is worth the trouble she’s already given him.
  • Where did you get the idea for this book?
I was having dinner with my lifelong girlfriends and we started reminiscing on horrible dates that had gone wrong. We spent hours chatting, drinking, laughing out loud, and causing other people at the restaurant within earshot to spit out their food. Even the busboy kept clearing the empty table behind us to listen in on our conversations. I decided that we had so many wonderful stories that I had to squeeze out a romance novel, and so A Selfish Moment was born.  
  • Did any of your inspiration for this book originate in your real life experiences?
Almost all of this is inspired by a real experience from my life or the life of one of my girlfriends. There is just so much richness in our pasts that I had to get some of it on paper.  Jubilee’s circumstance and character is a blend of all of us, and so is Sophie. They are both mash-ups of our personalities.  
  • What traits and other tidbits do you share with your main character?
Jubilee and her best friend Sophie grew up playing handball in Queens. This is a staple of my youth - I too spent countless hours at handball courts all around Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn up until my senior year at New York University. You could go to any handball court and call “Next” and play the locals from that park. Almost everyone who grew up in New York City, especially in the outer boroughs, knows what handball is. It was rare seeing a girl play handball with the guys back then, but I was one of them, and so were Jubilee and Sophie.
  • Why should someone want to read your book in particular?
It’s a beautiful love story based in the heart of Queens, New York. It’s filled with the rush of a New York minute blended with a need to slow down and smell the roses. It’s a dual-perspective piece, so you get to experience Everett’s point of view as well as Jubilee’s and all the misinterpretations of the scenarios come to life.  
  • Who will like your book?
People who like Jennifer Wiener and Maria Murnane novels will love this story. My characters are full of pain, suffering and hope.  
  • Do you have another project in the works? If so, what is it?
I have another romance novel in the works about a woman who meets the guy of her dreams at a funeral she wasn’t meant to attend. It also plays with tough pasts, unusual circumstances, and conflicting emotions. I also have other science fiction romance stories in the works which are still untitled.
  • Where can a reader find more information about you, the author?
Visit my website at http://www.tanyamiranda.com

Friday, August 30, 2013

Cover Reveal for Capstone by Misty Provencher

Release date September 30, 2013

CAPSTONE Blurb

It's supposed to stink. That's what Cusps do.
The Ianua, Nalena and Garrett's own community, have welcomed them back by charging them as traitors and chucking them into the Hotel Celare's slammer.
And outside the fortress walls, it's no better.
The Cusp is at full-boil as the world finally surrenders to The Fury's lifestyle. Looting, riots, murders—every kind of crime has become the norm—and The Fury want to make it all permanent.  They might even succeed, now that they've nabbed all thirteen of the Ianua's Cornerstones.
To preserve mankind, the only chance the Ianua have left is to beat The Fury to the Earth's Core and somehow trigger the Reset.
Like that's easy.
There's no manual on how to activate a Reset. Nobody even knows if there’s an actual Core to the Earth.
Shoot, it could be one big myth; an epic waste of effort.
But the Addo thinks there is one last hope.
Maybe.
So long as someone is willing to sacrifice everything to be mankind's long shot.


Books by Misty Provencher
The CORNERSTONE Series  (Young Adult)
HALE MAREE  (Adult, Contemporary Romance)
FULL OF GRACE (Adult, companion book to Hale Maree)
MERCY, A GARGOYLE STORY  (New Adult, Dark Urban Fantasy)
Available in paperback and ebook at:  

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Never Let You Go by Michele G. Miller Cover Reveal


Never Let You Go (Book 2 in The Prophecy of Tyalbrook Series)
Author: Michele G. Miller
Genre: YA Fantasy Romance
Release Date: Late Fall 2013
Summary:
Two souls desperate to discover the truth about the past and determined to save their future...

SKYE
The usual warmth I felt deep in my soul when Xander was near me was beginning to dull. Yet I  still  remembered the warning:“Be careful,my Princess...you will lose all you love before you can win what you want.”
XANDER
I could feel it; she hadn’t been here. Two days of hell, riding as fast as we could and only taking small breaks, and yet she had outrun us. How?

A PRINCESS set on regaining her Kingdom and protecting those she loves...
A GUARDIAN who will stop at nothing to find the woman who stole his heart...
An EVIL FORCE who will destroy everything they know in order to have power over all...
The journey continues in  Never Let You Go, book two in The Prophecy of Tyalbrook Series.




About the author

Michele is the author of the Amazon bestselling Coming of Age Fantasy- Never Let You Fall, The Prophecy of Tyalbrook Series.  She is currently working on two books due to be released late 2013.  Never Let You Go, the second book in The Prophecy of Tyalbrook Series and Last Call, a New Adult Romantic Comedy.

Having grown up in both the cold, quiet town of Topsham, Maine and the steamy, southern 
hospitality of Mobile, Alabama, Michele is something of a enigma.  She is an avid Yankees fan, loves New England, being outdoors and misses snow.  However she thinks southern boys are hotter, Alabama football is the only REAL football out there and sweet tea is the best thing this side of heaven and her children’s laughter!  

Her family, an amazing husband and three awesome kids, have planted their roots in the middle of Michele’s two childhood homes in Charlotte, North Carolina.  



Other Books By Michele G. Miller:

Never Let You Fall by Michele G. Miller
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Released May 1st 2013
Summary:
Orphaned at 7, with no memory of her past or the family she lost, 17 year old Skye Martin is tired of being alone and afraid. After a hard night of partying, Skye wakes up alone in an unfamiliar hotel. All she can remember is the deep voice of her rescuer and his promise: “I am safe.”


Xander has been tasked with watching Skye from afar for the past two years, in order to keep her safe from the demons that hunt her. An easy job - until a pair of red glowing eyes reveal themselves to Skye, and Xander, in a moment of weakness, is forced to break his cover to protect her. Never good at trusting people, Skye is inexplicably drawn to Xander and the immediate bond she feels for him. However, Xander is filled with secrets and ties to her past that threaten to thrust Skye into a world she could never imagine existed…


As she begins to unravel the truth about who Xander is and the details surrounding her family, she discovers that she might just be the key to saving everything... And, most importantly, she finds that there has always been someone by her side who would never let her fall…

Buy Links
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Never-Fall-Prophecy-Tyalbrook-ebook/dp/B00CLKOW0Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1377718192&sr=1-1&keywords=Never+Let+you+Fall+Michele+G+Miller
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17879285-never-let-you-fall

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Labor Day Ebook Sale and Giveaway!!!

giveaway pic
Labor Day is fast approaching; a day that we take the time to recognize the economic and social contributions of hard working Americans! Many of us take the long weekend to barbeque, rest and relax and maybe even catch up on our sleep. But if you’re a true bibliophile, you are probably bypassing all of that in hopes of getting in some valuable reading time! This week, discovering new authors and taking advantage of their marked down titles can earn you entries toward a Kindle Fire or Nook HD, winner’s choice! With a diverse selection of books including Young Adult, New Adult, Romance, and Erotic Romance, you’re sure to find some awesome reads for the upcoming holiday weekend!
 This giveaway sponsored by:

Check out our selection of ebooks marked down to only $0.99 each for the duration of the giveaway. Once you've downloaded the ebook(s) of your choice, you will be emailed an invoice from wherever you purchased your ebook. Simply find which book you purchased on the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your invoice's order number (which does not contain any of your personal information). Each order number entered will earn you TEN entries toward the Kindle Fire or Nook HD. For every author whose page you follow on Facebook, you will receive one entry each. You can also receive an entry for tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter. So, get to browsing, get to know our sponsoring authors, and find your next favorite book! The winner will be drawn and notified September 3rd.

Books by Category:

 Paranormal Romance


 Contemporary Romance

Young Adult/New Adult

Erotic Romance

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, August 26, 2013

Sugar Coated Blog Tour


An unhealthy addiction to sugar cubes, a deep-seated fear of water, and universal luxury—these are the simple things that make up 18-year-old Brynn's Utopian existence. Why, then, is her perfect life also plagued with unanswered questions?
Like every other resident of the planet Halcyon, Brynn's home provides everything she needs, money is unheard of, and life is perfect. But unlike the rest of Seaside's residents, Brynn has questions. Why can't people leave the city? Why does the ocean fill everyone with terror? Who are the Workers? Not only is Brynn curious where others are compliant, but she suffers from chronic nightmares of an angelic woman torturing her for information she doesn’t possess. But these are more than just figments of her imagination; they're memories of things that never happened.
When Brynn meets Jonah, a brilliant, library-dwelling boy who shares her questions and her curiosity, they formulate a plan to find answers. Somewhere, the perfect veneer of Halcyon's instant gratification hides a city that only Brynn knows about—a city she and Jonah are determined to find. But will finding the city give them answers, or simply uncover the horrific truth behind the perfection?


Sugar Coated Excerpt:

Blinding white lights flashed into life, revealing a room less cavernous and imposing than she had expected. Instead, the room with the white walls, ceilings, and floor was quite small; small enough for her to run from one end to the other without ever breaking a sweat. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust and once they did, she still couldn’t be sure of what she was seeing. There seemed to be a complete lack of color in this small room, as if it had been drained right before her arrival and was shining more brightly because of its recent purge.
Brynn blinked her eyes a few more times, trying to clear the spots that sprang into existence when the less-than-subtle lights had ignited. Now that she had a proper hold on her surroundings, she could see the impossibility of the room. There were no windows. There were no doors. There was no way in or out. So how had she gotten there?
“We apologize for any inconvenience your death may cause you at this time,” said a smooth, soothing female voice over what Brynn could only describe as a loudspeaker. If the woman’s voice hadn’t been so calm and collected, it may have taken her less time to understand exactly what she was saying before the sickly sweet smell of sugar hit her nose; like cookies right out of the oven.
This wasn’t just a room. It was a death chamber.
“We appreciate your cooperation and would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the best thing to do in this situation is enjoy this smell, generated for your pleasure,” the voice told her, never losing that deep, rich timbre.
Brynn thought that if she hadn’t been in an obviously dire situation, she would have loved nothing more than to listen to the beautiful voice and smell the sweet sugar all day long. But as it turned out, there wasn’t much time left in her day right at that moment.
Listening to the woman’s instructions against her better judgment, Brynn took one deep breath, enjoying the smell of the unnaturally rich sugar before her cheek made contact with the hard white floor with a sickening thud.


Author bio:

Shannen Crane Camp was born and raised in Southern California, where she developed a love of reading, writing, and anything having to do with film. After high school, she moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where she received a degree in Media Arts and found herself a husband in fellow California native Josh Camp. The two now live in either California or Utah... they still can't decide.
Shannen loves to hear from readers, so feel free to contact her at Shannencbooks@hotmail.com or visit her website for more information:
http://shannencbooks.blogspot.com


Purchase links:
So far I only have a Goodreads page because the book isn’t on sale yet. But here’s that in the meantime!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18054196-sugar-coated


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Friday, August 23, 2013

Jake: Through My Eyes Book One by Oliver Carter

Title: Jake: Through My Eyes Book One

Author: Olivia Carter

Release date: April 29th, 2013

Genre: Young Adult

Tour: Irresistible Reads Book Tours

Book Description:

Freshman year is about to begin and Molly Parker couldn't be more unprepared. Still recuperating from her father's recent split, Molly entertains a fragile relationship with her mother while simultaneously attempting to define herself. Molly has only her best friends, Rae and Margret, guy-crazy teenagers who mean well, and the "hard-boiled" restaurant owner Cindy to confide in until she "accidentally" meets Jake. But as far as strangers go, Jake and Molly are the strangest. Together they unearth one secret that will change their lives forever.





Olivia Carter is a dual enrolled high school and college student residing in Arizona. She lives with her parents, younger brother, seven rescue cats and three dogs. She enjoys painting, photography, and looks forward to attending University with a major in ancient history.