Wednesday, January 29, 2014

VBT: SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY- ESSENCE BY MACKENZIE LUCAS

ESSENCE

MACKENZIE LUCAS

BLURB:

All Haven Jameson ever wanted was to own a little piece of paradise. Now, she does, having established a successful luxury spa in St. Augustine, Florida. But when the property next door is sold to a mega developer and his pro-golf celebrity brother who design trendy, bustling playgrounds for the rich and famous, she fears her dream could slip away. Confronted by her late husband’s infidelity, Haven learns everything she believed about her marriage was a lie; so she finally sets aside her grief and opens her heart to loving the widowed pro-golfer who is her biggest professional competition. In the end, Haven discovers that living a safe, loveless life is far worse than embracing passion and taking a chance on a man who’s vowed never to love again. And that, sometimes, no matter how high the risk, the best paradise of all can be found inside our own hearts.

EXCERPT:

Pace Daniels lay on his belly on a massage table, naked except for a thin sheet covering his backside. He rested his cheek on his hands and closed his eyes, and breathed in the calming scent of the room.

Light music played from the overhead speakers, not too loud, but nice. It sounded like a mix of music from India and the Southwest—Burma to Santa Fe. Pan flutes and bowl singing. Interesting.

He breathed deep again, taking air deep into his lungs, and pushed through the pain in his shoulder, the achiness that seemed to stick with him no matter what he did.

It was time to retire. Leave the circuit.

He'd known for a while now. Hell, he was a fairly young man for his profession. But one mistake. One stupid mistake had cost him everything. And now at the age of almost forty, he was facing a blank future. Filled with a lot of nothing if he didn't make some changes soon.

He had no idea what to expect when he'd come to Essence. A pretty brunette had given him instructions today for the massage, showed him the transition room—a fancy name for a locker room—and where to store his clothes and belongings. Of course, he'd had massages before. Mostly by sports medicine doctors.

Essence surprised him. Pleasantly. The atmosphere was different than he’d imagined. He'd expected fru fru and had been bowled over at every turn. The place wasn't just a female Mecca, as he’d feared. He'd anticipated salon chairs and manicurists around every corner.

Instead, the spa resort was a posh hotel.

A serene place. A spot he could see himself settling into to find some measure of peace in his own life.

He let out a deep sigh.

But, no. He wouldn't. He'd move on like he always did.

A knock sounded at the door and a moment later, the door opened on silent hinges. He opened his eyes to see the massage therapist.

The woman who entered wasn't the petite, curvy brunette who'd checked him in, but a tall, leggy blonde.

He stilled as he watched her.

Yes, she was beautiful. High cheekbones, wide, exotic pale green eyes, lush body. But there was something else. Something indefinable. Something more, he couldn’t explain. Maybe a sadness that clung to her that he recognized because the same sloe-eyed desolation dogged him, day after day for the past ten years.

He couldn’t be one-hundred percent certain to what extent, but on some level, he identified with her.

Then she spoke, and every cell in his body awoke at the husky tone of her voice. Sex liquefied. He'd die and go to Heaven if he could just have her talk to him for the next hour in that sweet, sexy, soft voice.

“I'm sorry. I must be in the wrong room.” She turned to go.

He pushed up from the table. “No. Wait.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mackenzie Lucas is a lover of story in any form. She’s an avid reader of genre fiction, she writes contemporary and paranormal romance, and she listens to an eclectic mix of music that spans from pop/rock to country to gospel. She loves a good story whether it’s an erotic short, a full-length romance novel, or the narrative slice-of-life found in country music. In any story, emotional integrity and authenticity are most important to her as well as a big dose of romping hot sexual tension. She enjoys smart-mouthed, sexy heroines, hunky alpha heroes who know how to take care of their women, and plot twists that surprise her, but most of all, she just wants to experience a satisfying emotional arc of a character falling in love and finding what he or she needs most in life.

Mac is a small-town country girl with a world-traveler’s soul. She grew up in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania and she’s lived in Dublin, Ireland, within spitting distance of New York City in Long Island, and now in the Washington, D.C. area. She obtained her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Dickinson College and received her M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She’s currently an author, writing coach, a mother, and a wife.

With Mackenzie Lucas--whether you’re reading her light paranormal romance, her small-town-based contemporary romance, or her steamin’ hawt erotica--you’ll always get a story about connectedness, community, and emotional authenticity, and, at its core, love. No, and it doesn’t hurt that all her heroes are panty-melting gorgeous alphas and all their sexy, sensually aware heroines know how to stand up to them, give no quarter, and love them just as they are.

Links:

Website:http://www.mackenzielucas.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MacLucas_writer

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MackenzieLucasAuthor

https://www.facebook.com/MackenzieLucasFanPage

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6915570.Mackenzie_Lucas

GIVEAWAY!!

One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

Follow the tour and comment; the more YOU comment, the better YOUR chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/12/virtual-book-tour-essence-by-mackenzie.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RELEASE DAY SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY- FREAKN' COUGAR (FREAKN' SHIFTERS #6) BY EVE LANGLAIS

NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHT

FREAKN' COUGAR

EVE LANGLAIS

Forget taming their cougar. These young studs want her as is, even if she scratches.

Someone’s killing shifters in prison, and Patricia needs help catching the culprit. The cougar enlists the help of Stu and Ricky, a techno geek and a reformed criminal, a mismatched pair, who turn out to also be her mates. But Patricia’s already loved and lost one man. Does she dare allow herself to care again?

Older isn’t just wiser, it’s sexier, or at least that’s what a socially challenged wolf and a bad boy panther think. Forced to work together to catch a killer, Stu and Ricky soon find out they’ll have to learn to do more than tolerate each other when they realize one hot forty-something cougar is their mate. Can they find a way to work together and make their cougar purr?

Freakn’ Shifters series (each can be read as a stand alone):

BUY LINKS:

Excerpt (18+):

Chapter One

Sunday was family dinner night. For most people this would mean a loving gathering of close relatives around the supper table, exchanging news and exciting gossip over home-cooked food.
But his was no ordinary family. With the exception of one new addition, all present were shapeshifters; large cats, wolves, and even one big-ass bear. As for Stu, one of the lupine diners, he was related, in an unfortunate twist of fate, to all of them.
To one side of him sat Chris, younger brother, pain in his ass, and newly married chump to the lovely and delicate Jiao. On his right, he had the entertaining Alejandro, his other brother Mitchell—whom he lived to tease—and feisty Francine, their mate as well as his sister’s best friend.
Across the table sat his loud-mouthed, bratty sister Naomi with her mates Ethan and Javier, accompanied by his adorable baby niece and nephew—who currently took turns spitting out food and chortling. Then there was his other brother Kendrick, his best bud Joel, and their human mate, Ruth, a plump and juicy morsel. Not that he said that aloud—he preferred to not bleed all over his favorite Despicable Me minion T-shirt.
His oldest brother, Derrick, was the only one of his siblings missing because he was off on some mission to save the world—he always had been an overachiever and champion ass-kisser.
Toss in his mom and dad at the heads of the table, and the noise level currently underway probably exceeded local bylaw levels. Not that anyone would dare complain. Their neighbors were shapeshifters too and would more likely pee on the leg of a ticketing bylaw agent than complain about one of their own.
Seeing as how the whole family was pretty much accounted for, it made the ringing of the doorbell surprising. What insane person would show up at dinnertime on a Sunday at his house? Then again, the table still had one empty seat, a seat his mother enjoyed glancing toward at least once a day before shooting him a pointed stare, a look that plainly said, “And when will you be settling down with a mate of your own?”
As if he’d be filling it anytime soon. He still intended to sow many more oats before settling down. Of course, the whole sowing thing required him leaving the house and going to places where he could meet girls. Stu wasn’t the social type. At least not in person.
While comfortable around close friends and family, Stu lacked a suave tongue when it came to conversing with women. Tongue-tied, shy, and awkward tended to strike whenever he tried to flirt. So he mostly stuck to online dating personals, which would work a lot better if most of the profiles didn’t belong to lonely old men getting their jollies. Stu still woke in a cold sweat every so often when he remembered the video of the last so-called woman he’d virtually dated. Needless to say, she turned out to be a very hairy he who enjoyed masturbating for an audience while wearing a bunny rabbit suit. It took a week for the blindness to wear off.
Before the chimes could ding a second time, his father excused himself to answer, not that anyone paid much attention. The various conversation threads flowed fast and furious as everyone caught up on the week’s events. Naomi and Francine gushed over the newest thing the wonder twins had accomplished while the guys all discussed the most recent roster changes on the Ottawa Senators line-up.
Stu paid little of it any mind. He just came down from his room to scarf down a plateful, inhale some of mom’s pie, and store some energy for the World of Warcraft attack he’d planned with a group of other online gamers for the evening. His level seventy-six mage had acquired some new spells and armor that he was dying to test out.
But, judging by his stirring wolf, those plans might get cancelled.
Something smelled good, and for once it wasn’t Ma’s homemade peach cobbler pie. Leaning back in his seat and ignoring the noise around him, Stu inhaled deep, sifting the various scents.
No doubt about it. A shifter had entered their home. Someone he’d never met, in person at least. A female. Sniff. Sniff. Feline. And coming this way.
Stu opened his eyes and saw her as she stepped into the dining room, a trim, thirty-something blonde with bobbed hair and vivid blue eyes. Damn, talk about hot! She looked like a man’s stripper fantasy in her perfectly pressed RCMP uniform, which, while stern, did nothing to hide her athletic build, softened by very womanly curves. But it wasn’t just her looks that caught his attention, more the fact that judging by the way his inner beast sat up and took notice, along with a certain body part, he’d just found his mate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello, my name is Eve. I’m a stay at home mom who writes full time in between juggling my three kids, hubby, and housework, I write really raunchy stuff–usually with werewolves lol.

I was born in British Columbia, but being a military brat, I have lived a little bit everywhere–Quebec, New Brunswick, Labrador, Virginia (USA) and finally Ontario. My family and I currently live just outside Ottawa, our nation’s capital.

I’m writing romance, my way. I do have a twisted imagination and a sarcastic sense of humor something I like to let loose in my writing. I like strong alpha males, naked chests and werewolves. Lots of werewolves. In fact, you’ll notice most of my multi partner stories revolve around great, big, overprotective Lycans who just want to please their woman. I am also extremely partial to aliens, you know the kind who abduct their woman and then drive them insane…with pleasure of course.

I love to write, and while I don’t always know what my mind is going to come up with next, I can promise it will be fun, probably humorous and most of all romantic, because I love a happily ever after.

GIVEAWAY

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RELEASE DAY BLITZ & GIVEAWAY- CHANGING COURSE BY ALY MARTINEZ

CHANGING COURSE

ALY MARTINEZ

Title: Changing Course (Wrecked and Ruined #1)

Author: Aly Martinez

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: January 29, 2014

Buy the Book

Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis

I met Sarah Kate Erickson when I was 21 years old. I was lucky enough to keep her for seven years before a tragic accident stole her from me. She didn’t die, but sometimes I think it would have been easier if she had.

I lived in a haze for those four years after the accident. Catering to her every need, even though she hated the very sight of my face. I tried to hold on to her and the future that we were supposed to build together. But you can’t hold on to someone that doesn’t exist anymore.

It wasn’t until I met Jesse Addison, a barista at the local coffee shop, that I realized I didn’t just lose Sarah that tragic night, I lost myself as well. Jesse taught me how to let go of the past and learn to love again. But what happens when your past haunts your present and the woman you used to love refuses to accept the woman you can’t live without?

Excerpt

I met Sarah Kate Erickson seven years ago during a chance meeting at the local library. We were both reaching for the same William Shakespeare Collection. Our hands brushed, sparks flew, and it was love at first sight. We dated for three years, got married, and had sex for the very first time on our wedding night. Well, at least that is the story she made me promise to tell our future children.

The truth is that, I met Sarah in a bar while she was approximately one drop of alcohol away from spending the night praying to the porcelain gods. She had on some ridiculously tight red dress and the tallest pair of black fuck-me heels I had ever seen. It was whore-tastic, but damn, she looked amazing. She was already tall for a woman, but in those cock-hardening shoes, she towered over the other women. Her friends were dressed in similarly sexy and in somewhat coordinating outfits. A collaborative effort that was no doubt on purpose.

I watched as she asked for another drink from the bartender who stood staring at her partially exposed breasts for a beat too long. She reached across the bar, pushed one finger under his chin, and guided his gaze back to her eyes while she ordered drinks. She then turned and leaned her elbows behind her, propping herself up on the bar, and effectively thrusting her barely covered breasts into the face of every man in the room. It was then I knew I needed to meet them...I mean her...I had to meet her.

Sure, staring at her was probably creepy as hell, but I just couldn't take my eyes off her. As cheesy as it sounds, there was just something about the tall blonde that commanded my attention. It didn't hurt that I got an insta-hard on when I thought about those long legs wrapped around my waist. Okay, so maybe staring wasn't the only creepy part.

About the Author

I’m a 32 year old wife and stay at home mom to four kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. My life is crazy, which is probably why I drink entirely too much wine. Oh who am I kidding, I had a love affair with wine long before the kids came along. I was born and raised in Savannah Georgia, but we recently moved to Chicago. Let me tell you, this southern girl was not ready for the cold weather up here!

I’m an avid reader, but I haven’t always been that way. A few years ago my sister loaned me her Nook Color, and it changed my life forever. In the span of about two years, I read over 500 books. My newfound love of reading led me to start a book blog with two of my best friends. (Insert shameless plug here: WhiteZinBookends.com). Through WZ Bookends, I've had the opportunity to meet some of the most amazing authors, bloggers, and readers out there. Now that I have taken the leap into writing my own book, they’ve all shown me endless amounts of encouragement and support.

While driving home from Walmart one day in late October, a story embedded itself in my head and would not let go. It spiraled out of control until I finally opened my laptop and started writing. This journey has been a wild ride filled with tears, hand cramps, and tons of laughs. I love company, so follow me at one of the social links below and join me aboard this crazy train!