It is only days before the majority of Humanity lands onto the Crucible as they finish their Tutorials and Jeb still has no clue what City it will be only that it will not be the one he is in. In the meantime, Jessica Lewis, the nerdy girl who took the portal that was meant for her older Brother, is lost, scared, looking to the broken Jeb to save her, to teach her, to make her strong enough to stand on her own or at least to stand in his shadow without being obliterated. There is only one place according to the Blood-elf, Nes, to do so, the Endless Dungeon, the place Jeb and Bose had been dumped in, to begin with, the place they almost died multiple times, the place of their birth within the Crucible of War.
Both have some payback to give to the lizards who almost took their lives when they were only Copper Ranked, weak. Now they are Iron, two Tiers higher, and with many plans and little time. They need to get Jessica stronger while Jeb needs to keep his mind from breaking on the anvil of madness if they are ever going to protect his soldiers lost within the Crucible. The Empire is watching ever closer as the exiled Network Journalist, the dhampir, Shovani Tor, decides he and Bose and Bogie are her ticket back to relevance. All of it is spiraling in ever growing circles. Throw in the Greenskin hit squad led by the Vulture, hired by a Weaver through the Bloody Skull and you have a shit storm in the brewing.
Will they survive? Will Jessica and Nes find their own fates tied to the broken old soldier? Will Bogie get his rent paid?
Samantha Skye is a contemporary romance author from Melbourne, Australia. A country kid turned city slicker, Samantha writes characters that are as diverse as they are devilishly handsome.
Her unique brand of suspenseful spice deftly combines the risky and the risqué, setting hearts pounding for more than one reason! When she’s not plotting her next novel, Samantha can be found chatting on podcasts, or anywhere there’s sunshine.
An avid traveler, Samantha is just as comfortable in gumboots as she is in Christian Louboutins…but she’s usually having more fun in the latter.
I came to Whispers to start over. Just me, my baby, and a bakery that smells like second chances.
No more judgmental glances. No more family who treated me like a stain they couldn’t scrub out. Just flour, sugar, and the quiet hope that I can build a life worth living.
I didn’t expect to meet Griffin.
Grumpy, gorgeous, and maddeningly closed off, he’s the town’s most elusive billionaire and the man who built homes for the rich but never made one for himself.
He sees me. Not just the bump or the baggage, but the woman underneath. And when he looks at me like I’m the only thing that’s ever made sense, I forget how to breathe.
But trust isn’t something I can afford. My past has taught me to be wary of everyone. Even if the grumpy builder says he’s ready to fight for something real.
🥃Review🥃 Savannah has recently moved to Whispers to start a new life for her and the baby she is expecting. When her family found out she was pregnant thy had their own plans for what would happen and she wants no part of it. She is opening a new bakery however funds are tight so when Tanner suggests that Griffin could help her with some of the renos at no cost she offers to pay with baked goods.
Griffin is a man with a devastating past who never believed that love or a family would be part of his future. When he meets Savannah his first instinct is to protect her and be there for her which includes having them both face their pasts.
Griffin may come across as grouchy, but he has a heart of gold and will do anything for those he loves while Savannah shows how strong and resilient she is as life keeps throwing her challenges to overcome. The voice of Ryan West was the ideal choice for the character of Griffin while Savannah Peachwood allows you to feel what Savannah was experiencing.
That’s the one thing Brace Cordova is convinced of when he’s released from a five year stretch in a military prison.
He figures the best he can do is spend the rest of his days as a freighter pilot and vicariously live out his dream of a Commonwealth Fleet career through his cousin, Commander Letessa Cordova.
His plans unravel when he’s accosted by gangsters, rescued by smugglers, and swept up in the search for an ancient Earth relic.
With a vengeful crime lord and a Commonwealth Fleet gunship both hot on his heels, Brace soon realizes he might not live long enough to ever get a taste of the quiet life.
The Cordova Vector is book one in The Brace Cordova Space Opera Series. It’s an action packed science fiction adventure filled with diverse alien races, ruthless criminals, dedicated soldiers, and millennia-old mysteries.
Harlow James is a pen name I use to protect my identity as a high school teacher. Keeping those two roles in my life separate is necessary, but also fun! It’s like a live two lives, and anonymity gives me the opportunity to be bold and take risks in my stories.
I stumbled upon romance novels in 2018 when I picked up Driven by Kristy Bromberg, and I was obsessed. I had just lost my grandmother too, so reading offered me an escape from reality and a chance to grieve on my own terms.
About a year later, I got an idea for my own book and started writing. I researched self-publishing and jumped in with both feet. I had no idea what I was doing!
But now I’ve built a business and hobby that I LOVE! I have an outlet that’s just for me. When I write, I’m not a mom, a wife, or a teacher…I’m a woman who gets to tell stories that no one else can.
My books are the perfect blend of heartwarming moments, full-bellied laughs, and PLENTY of steam to melt your Kindles 😉 And there are always elements of me sprinkled in to every character and story that I write.
When I’m not writing you can find me reading or spending time in my kitchen. I love to cook and feed my family and friends. Otherwise, you can find me watching comedy specials with my husband, camping with our kids, or taking naps. I live for naps 😉
Pretending to be fake engaged to my enemy might not be my brightest idea.
But it is definitely necessary.
On the brink of the biggest car show of my career, I start to panic because it’s the first time I have to see my ex since our break-up.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t clean or amicable.
Then when Elliot Thorne’s ex-fiancé shows back up in town, I devise a plan for both of us to get what we want: a buffer from our exes with a dash of revenge.
The problem is Elliot takes his role to protect me too seriously.
He brings me food while I’m working to make sure I eat. He even silences the self-doubt I feel on a day-to-day basis.
And before I know it, he has me on my knees in my garage, and on my back on the hood of my car.
The hate I’ve harbored toward him melts away as fast as my panties, and I soon realize we have more in common than I thought.
Then he tells me a secret that makes me reevaluate our entire relationship.
Now I’m left to consider if something fake could be real…
And that maybe it’s about time I admit that Elliot isn’t my enemy after all.
JJ Hanson is as incredible as a father as Beckett is. And damn if that isn’t my kryptonite. As much as I despise this attraction to him, I’d never wish those traits away. I absolutely adore his daughter, and how could I not want him to be a great dad for her?
“I’m leaving shortly,” I reply.
“We’re going to the same place. Might as well ride together,” he says.
I swear every eye in the room is on us, like they’re all waiting for me to explode.
Avery peers up at me, her eyes the same glacier blue as her father’s. “You should remind him he’s not the boss of you.” She gives me one of her signature saucy smiles. “You’re the boss of him.”
The room erupts into laughter, the tension breaking. Grinning, I pull Avery onto my lap, hugging her tight. Her mother disappeared recently, so I’ve made even more of an effort to show her love and affection since. I still don’t know why she left, but that woman has caused more than enough grief for a lifetime. It serves me well not to think of her. I will, however, always have her little girl’s back. Even if she happens to be JJ’s daughter.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to remind him repeatedly.” I dart a look at JJ, who is wearing one of his many guarded expressions, his focus on us.
“I’m driving.” His eyes instantly light up like he’s surprised by my response. “Fine by me, Coach.”
That’s the other thing I got wrong when I pictured my future. I’m not the legend in the NHL. I’m just the legend’s coach.
I met Ben Wells at an airport on one of the worst days of my life. We talked, laughed, connected, and survived a travel disaster. Then we shared one wild, passionate night together.
That was where the story was supposed to end.
Ben went back to his life as a professional rugby player, and I went back to mine as a college student. Except mine came with a positive pregnancy test and a life I never planned for. One Ben made it clear he wanted no part of.
I didn’t fall apart or chase him. I picked myself up and brushed myself off, raised my daughter, and fought my way into law school.
For five years, we did just fine without him. We were happy, even.
Then, out of nowhere, Ben crashes back into our lives, smiling like nothing ever happened, and everything I thought I knew comes undone. Because some misunderstandings don’t just break hearts. They steal years.
Now Ben is determined to make up for lost time, and not just with our daughter.
The passion we shared is still alive and well, but the stakes are much higher now. But if there’s one thing Ben is good at—besides being relentlessly cheerful and sexy in his rugby uniform—it’s persistence. He doesn’t give up.
If Ben has it his way, the end of our story will be only the beginning.
From USA Today bestselling author Scarlett Cole, writing as S. Cole, comes an electrifying small town, enemies-to-lovers, age gap romance.
KNOX
I rule Gator Flats.
Seventeen years wearing the president’s patch, and every man in this swamp answers to me. So when someone gives up a club member’s location, not to the cops, but to a man who already tried to put him and his family in the ground, I take it personal.
There’s a rat close to my table.
I’ll find them.
What I don’t need is Maren Caldwell driving past my compound like she doesn’t know exactly who I am. Like her father didn’t shoot my brother and keep his badge.
She’s too young. Too tied to things that never washed clean. And every time I look at her, I forget that wanting something and taking it are two different things.
A heart-mending romance for a small town marriage-in-repair between reunited lovers seeking a second chance at love later in life.
Dart Rivers is my ex-husband, or so I thought.
Three years ago, he drove out of our small town to chase racing dreams, leaving me and my broken heart in his rearview mirror.
Couple goals and shattered promises brought feelings of failure on both our parts.
Then one night, a special delivery is left on my back step. A stork-drop of sorts. (Think Baby Boom). At first, I believe there must be a mistake, but when the sweet bundle swaddled in pink gazes at me, I’ll do anything to keep her.
Enter Dart Rivers again.
An accident on the track leads to him sneaking into the house, crashing on my couch, and announcing he’s still mine.
Close proximity provides honest conversations, friendly couch time, and familiar attractions. With silver speckled in his hair, Dart is still the best-looking man I’ve ever seen, making my belly flutter and my heart beat again.
But can I trust that fragile organ? Can I give my ex-not-ex-husband a second chance? Can I believe Dart’s new promises?
+ + +
Rogue River series is a spin-off from the Sterling Falls series, specifically Sterling Touch, giving readers small-town romances with characters over 40.
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Monica Murphy comes a sweltering summer romance you won’t be able to put down.
Twenty-two-year-old heiress Rachel Henderson has one goal this summer: hide out at her family’s lake house and recover from the most mortifying breakup Manhattan society has ever witnessed. Sun, swimming, and zero paparazzi—what could go wrong?
But her quiet summer by the lake goes up in literal flames when a spa-day candle mishap sets her mother’s designer curtains on fire. When the local fire department shows up–specifically the ridiculously hot fire captain—the house is saved, but the captain scorches her pride with a lecture about fire safety.
Determined to prove she can handle life on her own without her family’s help, Rachel finds a new roommate and a new job—too bad she’s terrible at it. Oh, and she keeps running into Captain Tall-Dark-and-Infuriating (which definitely isn’t a hardship). The more time they spend together, the more their conversations start to get real, and Rachel finds herself falling for Wyatt. She thinks he might even feel the same way.
The only problem? Wyatt is all about roots and permanence, while Rachel is the very definition of flighty. But this summer, she just might be tempted to stay …
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🔥Review🔥 When Rachel’s personal life implodes very publicly she decides to distance herself from the situation by staying at her family’s holiday home. Her situation goes from bad to worse when an accident causes a fire which has her being rescued by Wyatt, the fire chief. With her father trying to get her to take responsibility she finds herself living and working at the local ice cream parlor where she finds herself experiencing things she has never been exposed to.
Wyatt is the fire chief and a single father to his daughter who he believes is the only woman he needs in his life. That holds especially true for Rachel as he believes she is scattered with no responsibilities while he needs to be focused on his career and his daughter but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t find her attractive.
This is a story of two very different people at very different times in their lives but they are exactly who the other needs in their life. He sees beyond the fact that Rachel has been sheltered to the woman she was meant to be and the romance between them was both humorous and heartwarming.
Amelia was being far too amicable for someone who had just been abducted.
I had kidnapped plenty of people and even kept a pair of earplugs on hand should such an occasion arise.
The constant screaming and “please don’t kill me!” was always rather taxing.
But there she was—sitting in the front seat, ankles crossed, pretty as a picture.
She was up to something. I just didn’t know what.
The truck rumbled as I navigated the mess of highways that would get us out of New Jersey. Not that crossing the state line would protect us from John Valentine, but the first rule of self-defense is to make space. The more space, the better.
I glanced at Amelia out of the corner of my eye. She was just . . . sitting there. She wasn’t looking out her window. She was staring straight ahead, as if she was the one driving.
Why isn’t she freaking out?
Why isn’t she asking questions, like where I’m taking her or what’s happening to her brother or how long we’ll be gone?
Does she know more than she’s letting on?
I squeezed the steering wheel as I tried to figure out what was going on in that brilliant head of hers.
I had read all the articles, news pieces, and interviews. I knew everything there was to know about the genius in my passenger seat and her eidetic memory. Usually, knowing more about the subject than they knew about me gave me the upper hand.
But with Amelia Hawthorne, I wasn’t so sure.
Her silence was unsettling, and I was never unsettled.
Did she think I hadn’t done a good job? I’d seen some sloppy kidnappings over the years. Nausea aside, Amelia had gotten a premium abduction experience.
“Fine. I’ll admit that he has pleasant features.” They both burst out laughing at that. “Okay, more than pleasant. Have you seen him?” Delaney shook her head, waiting on tenterhooks for something more descriptive than “pleasant”. “He’s…taller.” “Taller,” she repeated. “That’s all you’ve got for me?” I stuttered over my thoughts in frustration. I didn’t want to think about him or hot he was. It would only ruin my plan to stay as far away from him as possible. But she wasn’t having it. “Fine, he’s…muscular. Like, really, really muscular.” “Declan muscular?” “Not that much. But it’s one of those things that you can see through his shirt.” Delaney sighed dreamily. “I love it when you can see their shirts stretched across their biceps.” “Not to brag, but I have one of those,” Josie grinned. Delaney smacked her arm. “Hey, some of us can only dream for now.” Then she turned back to me. “Go on.” “Um…well, he still has warm, chocolate eyes. And his hair is shorter than it used to be.” “Can you still run your fingers through it?” As soon as I thought about it, shivers raced down my spine. That was not good. “Yes.” “Oh my God,” Josie whispered. “Did you hear that hitch in her voice?” “I definitely did. Tell us more.” “There was no hitch.” “There was definitely a hitch. Which means it’s really good. Now spill!”
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