Category Archives: Excerpt

Excerpt: Love’s Forbidden Flower by Diane Rinella

Love’s Forbidden Flower
(Forbidden Flower, #1)
By: Diane Rinella
Publisher: Midnight to Six
Published: Nov. 28, 2012
Genre: New Adult Romance

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The heart cares not what society forbids.

Lily nurtures a secret love for a flawless man—the one who is her soul mate. Donovan is gorgeous, charismatic, and delights in all of Lily’s talents and quirks. Their innate knowledge of each other is almost telepathic. Together they interlock like fine threads creating luxurious silk.

But society dictates this picture-perfect adoration is the ghastliest of all possibilities.

As Lily embarks on a quest for the romance the heavens intended, her suitor turns reluctant. Desperate to uncover why Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hiding decayed from a tender-hearted gentleman into a ferociously self-serving, cocky bastard, Lily is prepared for battle when it comes to the salvation of her soul mate. However, Donovan traps Lily in a mental game of chess, leaving her to question his sanity. When Lily’s revelations about Donovan’s destructive alter ego lead to an inconceivable truth, can she help Donovan survive fate’s cruel joke?

Impassioned, witty, and deeply moving, Love’s Forbidden Flower is filled with stunning controversies that will forever haunt your heart.

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Excerpt: Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed

Surrender Your Love
(Surrender Your Love, #1)
By: J.C. Reed
Publisher: Self-published
Published: March 15, 2013
Genre: New Adult Romance

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Meeting Jett was like lightning. Dangerous. Better left untouched. And better forgotten. But lightning always strikes twice.

Brooke Stewart, a realtor in New York, doesn’t do relationships. When she’s sent to a remote estate to finalize a real estate deal, she discovers her new boss is no other than the guy she left naked in bed.

Sexy, dangerously handsome, and arrogant Jett Mayfield attracts trouble, and women, like a lightning rod. But the night he meets Brooke he gets more than he bargained for. The green-eyed millionaire playboy isn’t used to taking no for an answer, and he isn’t about to start now.

When he proposes two months of no strings sex, Brooke is intrigued and accepts his proposal. Little does she know Jett’s determined to claim the one woman he can’t have, pulling her deeper into his dangerous world.

A man who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
A woman afraid to surrender to love.
Two lives that are about to cross…and secrets laid bare.

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Review & Excerpt: Rules of Entanglement by Gina L. Maxwell

Rules of Entanglement
(Fighting for Love, #2)
By: Gina L. Maxwell
Publisher: Brazen
Published: March 31, 2013
Genre: Erotic Romance
Rating:
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Seven days. And seven rules to break…

District Attorney Vanessa McGregor firmly believes that structure and order are the stuff that dreams are made of. Happiness can be planned – and it starts with seven rules she’s laid out for her future. But as she’s organizing her best friend’s wedding in Hawaii, all of Vanessa’s best-laid plans are about to meet their match in a wickedly hot MMA fighter…

Jackson “Jax” Maris is focused on surfing, training and fighting. That is, until he opens up his big mouth, and finds himself having to pretend he’s engaged to his little sister’s best friend, Vanessa. When they’re force to share a romantic bungalow, however, their little charade suddenly takes a turn for the seriously sexy. And while Jax is definitely not part of Vanessa’s long-term plan, he has seven days – and seven naughty nights – to turn her seven-rule plan upside down.

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Excerpt: The Crimson Hunt by Victoria H. Smith

 

The Crimson Hunt
(Eldaen Light Chronicles, #1)
By: Victoria H. Smith
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Nov. 8, 2012
Genre: Paranormal Romance / New Adult

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College junior Ariel Richmond is working on year three of Project Normalcy.

Her house reeks of keggers past and her bestie is just a slight bit vulgar. But the thing is—they both aid in making life refreshingly uneventful.

So much for hard-earned mediocrity when Luca Grinaldi appears on the scene.

Luca’s sudden presence on campus is hard to ignore. Those bright eyes act like a beacon to unsuspecting females, and with features like his, he’s got to be moonlighting for GQ. Luca hopelessly captivates Ariel with his confidence and charisma, but the mysteries surrounding him make him nearly untouchable. And just when Ariel grows close enough to unlock his secrets, a tragic event sends her life in a downward spiral.

That steady life is no longer an option and allies quickly become scarce. The mysterious Luca seems to be the only one willing to help her—but with that trust comes the burden of his secrets. He has a dark mission of otherworldly proportions, and is willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes to see it completed.

Gone are the days of simply maintaining normalcy, and if Ariel isn’t cautious with her trust, so soon may be her future.

 

Grabbing my cup, I forgot myself and indulged in a sip.

Luca watched me, his gaze hard.

Note to self: brown tea + white shirt + GQ model = bad idea. I placed my cup on the table’s surface and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans.

He continued to watch me. His stare was so deep it could be mistaken for analyzing.

Gosh, he stared hard. Like his eyes were trying to unearth some secret he wanted to know from mine. Since I wasn’t skilled in the art of mind reading, I figured I should make an attempt at formulating some sentences. “So, who is ‘I am Luca?’” I asked, mimicking his original introduction to me. Nice, Ariel, real nice. Making fun of him will definitely score you points.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what do you do in your spare time? Besides helping girls save cute, baby deer in the middle of vacant woods, of course.” I laughed. It was getting easier to be more natural with him. I liked that.

He laughed, too, breaking his analysis. “School and work takes up the majority of my time.”

Something told me there had to be more to him than that. No one who looked like that graced the world with their beauty in such a mundane way.

“What about you?” he asked.

“I guess the same as you. Just work and school.”

“So why did you find my answer odd?”

Was he skilled in the art of mind reading? “What do you mean?” I laughed in nervousness.

He smiled and rested his finger to his delicious lips. “You looked a little underwhelmed by my answer, is all.”

By God, he got me. “I just thought that … I guess I didn’t know what I thought.” Oy vey.

He laughed gently. 

 

 

Victoria H. Smith has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She puts it to good use writing romance all day. She resides in the Midwest with her Macbook on her lap and a cornfield to her right. She often draws inspiration for her stories from her own life experiences, and the twenty-something characters she writes give her an earful about it.

In her free time, she enjoys extreme couponing, blogging, reading, and sending off a few tweets on Twitter when she can. She writes new adult fiction romance in the sub-genres of science fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary, but really, anywhere her pen takes her she goes. Her new adult science fiction romance, The Crimson Hunt, will be published November 2012.

 

Excerpt: Midnight Engagement by Eliott McKay

Midnight Engagement
By: Eliott McKay
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Published: Feb. 1, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance

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Some people inherit family businesses, while others receive hand-me-downs, Michaela gets an atrocious pair of spectacles that hide her true identity — the one she doesn’t know about!

Michaela is part-vampire and very unaware of it until she is abducted to a banished city by a werewolf who secretly loves her. It is her inherited duty to keep the peace between the Silva, her bloodthirsty kin, and the city, by attending a midnight summit held each year.

Michaela is thrust in to a chaotic mix of emerging vampire traits, a fight to maintain her humanity, and a die-hard curiosity for the aloof, mysterious wolf-man. The fate of the city rests in her hands and she must choose between peace for its inhabitants and the man she loves.

 
 
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Excerpt: A Killing Touch by Nikki Duncan

 A Killing Touch
(Sensory Ops, #4)
By: Nikki Duncan
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Published: March 5, 2013
Genre: Romantic Suspense

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 Journalist Lana Quinn has a way with hard-hitting news. The story she’s uncovered has potential, but she needs the help of her best friend’s FBI team. She’s been rescued by them, worked with them, and partied with them, but convincing the second in command to believe her theory-that a killer’s touch sets off a lethal allergic reaction-is a frustrating challenge.

Especially since he excites her, body and mind. He’s a danger she shouldn’t indulge.

Aidan Burgess is resistant to helping Lana, but not for the reason she thinks. She has a knack for landing herself in trouble, which means she needs protection. Protecting her means staying near her, a journalist, who like all journalists uses whatever-and whomever-it takes to get her story. It’s a case he wants to refuse.

Especially since she lights a fire in his blood. She’s a danger he can’t afford.

As Lana follows up on lead after deadly lead, learning to trust and rely on each other becomes their only lifesaving hope. If their pride doesn’t become their final pitfall.

Warning: This title contains a grudge-holding hero who gives “kiss my ass” new meaning, a heroine out to prove herself, and a danger that dares them to trust.

 

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Excerpt: Infinity by Sedona Venez

Infinity
(Valkyries: Soaring Raven #1)
By: Sedona Venez
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Jan. 17, 2013
Genre: New Adult/Paranormal Romance

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Infinity discovers a dark secret from her past that rocks everything she knows to be true.
Infinity is a troubled 22-year-old superstar singer with the worst reputation for drugs and hard partying. Now, she is on the road to a comeback with her controversial tour. But everything about doing the concert feels wrong from missing employees, to anonymous threats to ruin her career. Things spiral further out of control as she wrestles control of her life and career from a relationship that crossed the fine line between love and obsession. She deals with a powerful corporation determined to kill her and everyone she loves.

Infinity knows too much, with no way out.

Now she must put her safety and trust in the hands of sexy, tattooed and delicious Torch Channing and Boulder Vigari, hired to keep her from getting killed. Boulder wants to make her his. He won’t stop until he claims her. Torch struggles with his primal need to possess her and his hatred of everything she represents.

Infinity is determined to protect her heart while dealing with the pressure of pulling off another successful tour without spiraling into another mental meltdown.

 

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Excerpt: Blood Poems by Colette Ntuj Chevalier

Blood Poems
By: Colette Ntuj Chevalier
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Jan. 30, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy

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How much fear will you allow to control you? Discover the limit of courage. Discover the strength of heart. Dare to Discover.

After losing both of her parents, fifteen-year-old Violet longs for a second chance at life by finding somewhere she feels she belongs in. When she is sent to a secret union boarding school (of vampires and humans) deep in the woods of Cook County Minnesota, little does she know that here in this place is where her search for home will end. Hotaru, a vampire, invites her into a world where she recollects the memories she has forgotten, recapture her soul, and through dangerously twisted situations she discovers the limit of her courage and the strength of her own heart.

 

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Excerpt: Big Bad Bite by Jessie Lane

Big Bad Bite
(Big Bad Bite, #1)
By: Jessie Lane
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: Jan. 28, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance

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What would it be like to live in a world where you are considered abnormal to those who are above the norm?
Jenna O’ Conner has been taught her whole life to hide from everyone. Never to let anyone to close enough to know that she would prefer a shotgun for her birthday over of a bouquet of roses. She’s been smothered by her over protective family so that no one learns what she truly is. Which is not human. Nor, is she considered the norm for the supernatural Other community that is benevolent enough to share this world with the humans.

In a desperate attempt to live her own life away from the small town she was raised in, Jenna obtains her dream job as the newest member on the Wilmington Police Department’s SWAT Team. What she didn’t predict was that she would run into trouble her first day on the job, in the form of a deadly, mouthwatering man named Adam McPhee. Who is also not human, but more like a wolf walking around in human skin. He’s determined to figure out exactly what Jenna is, which unbeknownst to him, could very well put her life in danger. He’s also determined to have her all to himself.

As if that wasn’t enough for Jenna to deal with, bad news blows into town. A group of extremist Shifters who think humans are cattle and factions of Others worldwide should stay within their own species – never to intermingle. Chaos ensues. Jenna has to find a way to shut them down, but in the process of trying to do that, discovers things about herself that even she never thought was possible.

Who said the wolf was what you had to worry about?
Welcome to the real world.

The house had seemed so much bigger to her before she parked two shifters and a demon in the living room. Now with the three large-bodied men huddled in the room, she felt damn near claustrophobic. Her Uncle and brother were smashed next to each other on her small dove gray loveseat while Kent occupied her only other sitting option in the room, a vibrant suede purple tufted armchair. The look of barely suppressed disgust on his face at having to sit in what he had announced was “a girly monstrosity that no man should ever have to suffer, in the house of his newest partner who he expected to have better taste no less.” At least that was the reason he would give his therapist for the nightmares he was sure to endure.
Jenna just thought the whole damn thing was hysterical. In the chair that her Mama had gifted her sat a five foot eleven inch, two hundred pound, leanly muscled, smooth talking, lady killer with a easy confidence that landed him firmly in the egotistical category. But at the moment, a lady killer that would probably rather abstain from sex for an entire month than sit in Jenna’s girly chair. She could tell that the only thing that equaled Kent’s repulsion for her chair was his surprise that she would even own the chair. Sure, she liked being a cop and generally did mental happy dances whenever she was able to outperform her testosterone-laden coworkers who presumed she was going to be more of a hindrance than a help because of her carrying reproductive organs. She also liked to play with guns, and could shoot almost any gun she could get her hands on at an expert level, when most women would rather get a pedicure than pick up a handgun. But all of that didn’t mean that she didn’t enjoy some of the feminine ideals of life. Such as pretty furniture that was also super comfortable. You’d never catch her with anything pink in her house, but that purple chair with its lush velvet fabric was her favorite piece of furniture to curl up in after a long day at work. The fact that it made her partner uncomfortable to sit in, as if the level of girliness would rub off on him, was a bonus. He was acting like it was only a matter of time before someone would walk into the living room and demand his man card back.
Jessie Lane is the writing team of Melissa Pahl and Crystal Leo. The two sister-in-laws share a passionate love of naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them. Because really, it is ALL about the characters. (They’re kind of megalomaniacs – but don’t tell them that we said that.)

Crystal and Melissa often live half their lives with their heads in the clouds dreaming of alpha military hunks, werewolves and kick ass heroines crazy enough to chase after creatures that they unquestionably should know better than to chase.

Their first YA novel, The Burning Star, was released in May 2012. Big Bad Bite is their second novel, but their first adult paranormal romance. They are now working on their next two novels, Walk On The Striped Side and Secret Maneuvers. With these projects underway, they are looking forward to showing the rest of the world their crazy stories, heroes and heroines that often plague their minds until written, and hope you will join them on their journey!

 

Release Day Party: Hidden Gates by D.T. Dyllin

Hidden Gates
(P.J. Stone GatesTrilogy, #1)
By: D.T. Dyllin
Publisher: Dragonfairy Press
Release Date: Jan. 24 2013
Genre: New Adult/Paranormal Romance

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For P.J. Stone, being a “Seer” who has never seen anything is less than fun. And P.J. isn’t known for her patience.

To make matters worse, she must choose a suitable mate to continue the Seer bloodline. Duty always comes before her heart…at least that’s what her parents taught her. When she finds herself wanting someone who is considered off-limits, P.J. is forced to question everything she believes.

As if navigating her love life isn’t complicated enough, P.J. finally receives a vision—of a threat to her world that only she can perceive. But no one will believe a fledgling Seer’s warnings. With nowhere else to turn, she may decide to trust a stranger with her life, her world, and maybe even her heart.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

“No, we can’t,” he growled. “God knows how much I want to, how long I’ve thought about it. That’s why Tammie and I broke up—because it wasn’t right; I couldn’t get you out of my head. It wouldn’t have been right to be with her when I was thinking about you the whole time. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a Seer and I’m a Guardian. You’re too good for me, out of my league.”

I blinked at him in surprise, letting his words fully sink in. I was the reason he broke up with Tammie? He wanted me? Likereally wanted me? “You can have me.” And I meant it. I realized as I said the words that I always had—and always would be—his for the taking.

“Be careful, Peej.” His voice was low and husky. “If you keep offering, I might just take it.”

I stepped into him, resting my hand on his arm. “I wouldn’t offer it if I wasn’t willing to let you have it.” His sea-storm eyes threatened to pull me under, to wash away any thoughts of anything but him. 

 

 

Cynical-Optimist. Chocolate-holic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self-Imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Geek. Animal Lover. Writer…are just a few words to describe D.T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and two very spoiled GSDs.