#BookReview: I See London by Chanel Cleeton

ABOUT THIS BOOK:

For the first time in print! New York Times sensation Chanel Cleeton's international, angst-fueled romance is perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Lucy Score.

Maggie Carpenter is a small-town Southern girl who’s never been kissed. She’s ready for a change—and to leave her ordinary life and a failed attempt to get into Harvard behind. She accepts a scholarship to the International School in London, where she’s suddenly mingling with the privileged offspring of diplomats and world leaders.

When Maggie meets Hugh, a twentysomething British guy, she finds herself living the life she has always wanted. Suddenly she’s riding around the city in a Ferrari, wearing borrowed designer clothes and going to the hottest clubs. The only problem? There's someone else, someone she can’t seem to keep her hands off of.

Half French, half Lebanese and impossibly rich, Samir Khouri has made it clear to Maggie that despite their intense attraction, he doesn't do relationships. He's the opposite of everything she thought she wanted—a player with no interest in commitments—but she just can’t keep away. Torn between her dream guy and the one haunting her thoughts, Maggie must fight for her own happy ending. But in a city like London, you never know where you stand, and everything can change in the blink of an eye.

International School
Book 1: I See London
Book 2: London Falling

#BookReview: The Madness Locker Eddie Russell

ABOUT THIS BOOK:

On Christmas Day, 1986 a seventy-year-old widow’s body was discovered inside a wheelie bin in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Despite a long and intensive investigation, the police fail to unearth a motive or identify a suspect. Lacking any clues, the police file it as a cold case. Some half a century earlier the Third Reich ramps up its offensive to arrest and deport to the East the Nazi regime’s classification of undesirables. As part of the sweep, a young girl is arrested along with her parents. They are placed in a box car and forced to endure a three-day harrowing train journey. The final Auschwitz. On arrival she is separated from her parents to never see them again and is forced to suffer years of punishing labour, near-starvation and daily horrors. She is freed six years later when the Russian army invades Poland and liberates Auschwitz. Vindicated by her survival she sets out on a journey all the way around the world to Australia, in search of the one person that she blames for her ordeal in Auschwitz. Is that the clue that the police missed in trying to solve the crime?

#ReleaseWeekBlitz: Hooking Captain Teeth b y Marilyn Barr @RABTBookTours

Monster Brides (series of multiauthor standalones)

Monster Romance

Date Published: 07-15-2024

 

 

Captain Teeth

Orders—giving them, writing them, signing for them, and taking them—fill a Captain’s life. I miss the days when I climbed under skirts while on land and climbed the ratlines after we weighed anchor. The black spot on my pirate heart is due to my failure to find my lady love despite scouring the Caribbean for years. I’ve watched me hearties fall in love and drop from the sweet trade like flies, but this voyage to drop off my Quartermaster with his new bride in Mexico may break me…

 

Sabrina

Why shouldn’t I partake in the fancies of the human world when I sprout legs once a month? Swilling rum, dancing on tables, singing bawdy songs, and sampling every scallywag who catches my eye is harmless fun. I tell myself my behavior is entertainment…not to forget my soulmate who abandoned me five years ago at Maude’s Tavern. After a night of passion, he flipped a doubloon onto the sheets and sailed away. I can’t believe the scourge of the seven seas mistook his lady love for a common strumpet! My kind mates for life so if I ever see him again, I’ll sink him and his ship.

 

Nobody humiliates a Kraken.

#BookReview: Asking for a Friend by @hl_kara

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 

This title will be released on July 23, 2024.

This charming YA rom-com follows a strong-willed, ambitious teen as she teams up with her childhood frenemy to start a dating-advice column, perfect for fans of Emma Lord and Gloria Chao. 

Juliana Zhao is absolutely certain of a few things: 

1. She is the world’s foremost expert on love. 

2. She is going to win the nationally renowned Asian Americans in Business Competition. 

When Juliana is unceremoniously dropped by her partner and she’s forced to pair with her nonconformist and annoying frenemy, Garrett Tsai, everything seems less clear. Their joint dating advice column must be good enough to win and secure bragging rights within her small Taiwanese American community, where her family’s reputation has been in the pits since her older sister was disowned a few years prior. Juliana always thought prestige mattered above all else. But as she argues with Garrett over how to best solve everyone else’s love problems and faces failure for the first time, she starts to see fractures in this privileged, sheltered worldview. With the competition heating up, Juliana must reckon with the sacrifices she’s made to be a perfect daughter—and whether winning is something she even wants anymore.

#BookReview: The Night Ends with Fire (The Night Ends with Fire #1) by @ksongwrites

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 

Infused with magic and romance, this sweeping fantasy adventure inspired by the legend of Mulan follows a young woman determined to choose her own destiny—even if that means going against everyone she loves.

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.

The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.

In the army, Meilin's relentless hard work brings her recognition, friendship—and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her kingdom barrels toward destruction, Meilin begins to have visions of a sea dragon spirit that offers her true power and freedom, but with a deadly price.

With the future of the Three Kingdoms hanging in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust—Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, who has his own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew—about her kingdom and about her own heart.

#BookTour: The Ocean Hugs Hard by Eric Avedissian #Giveaway @RABTBookTours

 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: Given by Nandi Taylor

Synopsis: As a princess of the Yirba, Yenni is all-but-engaged to the prince of a neighboring tribe. She knows it's her duty to ensure peace for her people, but as her father's stubborn illness steadily worsens, she sets out on a sacred journey to the empire of Cresh, determined to find a way to save him at any cost, even though failure could mean the wrath of her gods and ruin for her people. One further complication? On the day she arrives at the Prevan Academy for Battle and Magical Arts, she meets an arrogant dragon-shifter named Weysh who claims she's his "Given", or destined mate. Muscular, beautiful (and completely infuriating), he's exactly the kind of distraction Yenni can't afford while her father's life hangs in the balance.

But while Yenni would like nothing more than to toss Weysh the man into the nearest river, Weysh the dragon quickly becomes a much-needed friend in the confusing northern empire. Yet when her affection for the dragon starts to transfer to the man, Yenni must decide what is more important: her duty to her tribe, or the call of her own heart.