#CoverReveal: The Ocean Hugs Hard by Eric Avedissian @RABTBookTours @angryreporter

 

Horror/Mystery

Date Published: 06-24-2024

Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing

 

Surfside City, New Jersey. 1966. Cub reporter Harman Bass is cutting his teeth in the fast world of local journalism and getting out-scooped by the competition. Facetious, cocky, and always quoting Nietzsche, Harman isn’t making any friends both in and out of the newsroom.

All that changes when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead on the beach, handing Harman the juiciest news story of the year. But she wasn’t any old beauty pageant queen; she was his high school girlfriend. Harman’s dogged reporting into the young woman’s death reveals pushback from the authorities and pulls the newshound into the resort’s darkest corners.

After one of his sources is murdered, the routine story becomes dangerous and personal. Something watches Harman from the shadows, something ancient and hungry, worshipped by powerful men who kill to keep their secrets. Harman’s job and life are soon threatened, and the once brash reporter must battle his boss, rival journalists, and his own sanity before filing what could be his last story.

THE OCEAN HUGS HARD is a mystery with the salty whiff of the ocean, a tinge of nostalgia, and a dollop of mind-shattering eldritch horror.

#BookReview: Good Girl Complex (Avalon Bay #1) by @ElleKennedy @ReaderLatte

Synopsis: She does everything right. So what could go wrong?

Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first she must get a college degree at her parents’ insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College.

Mac’s had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.

Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn’t just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he’s been keeping from her threatens the only place she’s ever felt at home.

#ReleaseBlitz for Sheltered by A.K. Evans @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: Sheltered

Series: Harper Security Ops #15

Author: A.K. Evans

Genre: Military Romantic Suspense

Tropes: Private Investigator/Opposites Attract

Release Date: May 28, 2024

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Harlow Stout has lived a quiet and sheltered life. Needing something else, something more, she decides to break out of her shell and do something impulsive for once. She just never anticipated she’d find him.

Blaze Matthews has seen and done it all. Working for Harper Security Ops, there’s no shortage of excitement in his life. But when he meets Harlow, he thinks it’s time to start considering settling down.

Unfortunately, someone isn’t very happy with the town’s elite private investigation and security company. And they’re unwavering in their quest to take Harper Security down by any means necessary.

Just as things heat up between Blaze and Harlow, everything else starts crashing down. And when Harlow gets caught in the crossfire, she wonders if seeking a thrill was her smartest move.

Blaze has to find a way to hold onto Harlow and keep her safe from the danger while he figures out who wants to destroy them.

#BookReview: The Worst Best Man by @Only_LucyScore @Read_Bloom

Synopsis: From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Things We Never Got Over "Newsflash. You don't buy me, a$#%^*e. You earn me." The bride is a doll. The groom is the perfect gentleman.  But the rest of the wedding party? They're the stuff of nightmares. Rich? Check. Vapid? Double Check. Entitled? Not enough checks in the world. And the Best Man? More like the Worst Man. But Maid of Honor Franchesca takes her duties seriously. Kidnapped groom? She's got this. Rude attendees? You just watch her handle them. So a Best Man with a big attitude and an even bigger...checkbook? Yeah, there's  no way she's going to let that pretentious, judgmental jackhole ruin her best friend's wedding.  No matter how sexy he is. (Well, that's the plan anyway...) Aiden Kilbourn doesn't do long-term relationships.  He's busy ruling the business world, and has yet to find a woman he can tolerate for longer than a month, two at the outside, anyway.  Conquering the unconquerable is basically his bread and butter.  And he hasn't met a challenge that he can't win. But Franchesca Baranski? This smart-mouthed girl from Brooklyn may just be his downfall.

#ReleaseBlitz for The Lethal Touch: Codename Rana by Candice Wright @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Lethal Touch

Codename: Rana

Series: Apex Tactical #4

Author: Candice Wright

Genre: Contemporary Menage Romance

Tropes: Forced Proximity/Mercenaries

Age Gap/Found Family

Release Date: May 30, 2024

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Born to a man of faith who let his vision for the future twist his mind,

I learned to stay in the shadows, collecting the kids that ended up in this godforsaken place with me.

They’re the lost ones, and I’m their Wendy.

The forgotten one, the dud, the failure.

My only use now is as a future breeder to the cause.

But they’ve taken enough, and I’ll be damned if I let them take more.

When the chance of escape is dangled before me like a carrot on a stick, I take it.

I run with my lost ones toward a new life where the kids can be kids, and I can be free.

But freedom is an illusion when you belong to another, and your nightmares are ready to hunt you down and drag you back to hell.

What do you do when you can’t run anymore and have nowhere to hide?

You turn back.

You fight back.

And slay your monsters before they get you first.

Forgive me, Father, for I’m about to sin...

Authors note: The Lethal Touch is the final book in the Apex tactical series. It is a ménage romance intended for 18+ readers.

Trigger warning: As with most of my books, The Lethal Touch contains some scenes that readers may find upsetting, so please proceed with caution.

#BookReview: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Synopsis: An Indie Next pick!

A gorgeous hardcover edition featuring lavender sprayed edges! The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

#ReleaseBoost for The Copper Valley Fireballs Complete Series by Pippa Grant @GiveMeBooksPR

Title: The Copper Valley Fireballs

The Complete Series

Author: Pippa Grant

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Release Date: May 30, 2024

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Meet the Copper Valley Fireballs, baseball's lovable losers whose hot heroes are determined to turn this team around and resisting finding love along the way! This box set includes four full-length romantic comedies and a bonus novella.

About the books:

Jock Blocked is a home run of a feel-good romantic comedy featuring the world’s most superstitious sports fan, baseball’s oldest virgin hero, a rogue meatball, an adorable puppy with a cussing problem, and a happily ever after more satisfying than a game-winning grand slam.

Real Fake Love is a line drive straight to the heart featuring a grumpy athlete, a jilted bride, a fake relationship, and the world’s laziest cat. It stands alone and comes complete with sibling rivalry, the world’s most awkward shower scene, and a sweetly satisfying happily ever after.

The Grumpy Player Next Door is a fun-filled enemies-to-lovers romcom featuring a ray of sunshine on a mission, an athlete who’s only grouchy around her, and an epic prank gone wrong. It stands alone and comes complete with small-town shenanigans, a goat who’s not nearly as wise as his name suggests, and proof that sometimes, love is the best kind of vengeance.

Irresistible Trouble is a hilarious grand slam of a romcom about a baseball player whose ego is catching up to him, a pop star who’s a bit of a hot mess when the cameras aren’t looking (and sometimes when they are), and the kind of family and teammates that everyone deserves… in small doses.

Have Yourself a Grumpy Little Christmas is a hit of holiday sweetness featuring a grumpy retired baseball pitcher who hates the holidays, his best friend's little sister, and a Christmas tree mishap.