[Cover Reveal] True Love's First Kiss by Heidi Garrett

Title: True Love's First Kiss

Author: Heidi Garrett

Cover reveal organized by: AToMR Tours

Nandana’s Mark, Book 1: When two half-faeries—Melia and her younger sister—are cursed under dreadful circumstances, true love’s first kiss is the remedy.

The Flower of Isbelline, Book 2: Nothing but true love’s first kiss can save Melia’s younger sister from blind ambition and ruin.

The Dragon Carnivale, Book 3: Melia must choose the freedom she cherishes or true love’s first kiss—and a relationship that promises to secure her place in the Whole.

The Queen of the Realm of Faerie is a fairy tale fantasy series that bridges the Mortal and Enchanted worlds. The main character, Melia, is an eighteen-year-old half-faerie, half-mortal. She lives in Illialei, a country in the Enchanted World, with her two sisters and their mother. Melia’s father has been exiled to the Mortal World, and her best friend is a pixie.

When the story opens in the first book, Melia is troubled by her dark moon visions, gossip she overhears about her parents at the local market, and the trauma of living among full-blooded faeries with wings—she doesn’t have any.

As the series unfolds, the historic and mystical forces that shape Melia’s life are revealed. Each step of her journey—to find the place where she belongs—alters her perceptions about herself, deepens her relationships with others, and enlarges her world view.

True Love’s First Kiss is a compilation of the first three books in this ongoing series.

About the Author

The product of a verbally gifted family, Heidi Garrett is possibly the least loquacious of them all. While her Uncle John created off-the-cuff characters like King Machi-Machi and her Uncle James turned otherwise ordinary moments into O. Henry stories, she would often sit dazzled and silent, thrilled that these were ‘her people,’ as Grandma would say.

Despite the verbal inadequacy that shadowed Heidi whenever she was in her family’s presence, she never stopped writing in secret. Whether it was angsty teen poetry, the personal journals she has since burned (imagine bonfires), passionate letters to the editor, purgative song lyrics, or simply imagined vignettes, Heidi has played with words all of her life. Bottom line: she loves stories and the people who tell them.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook 

[Cover Reveal] Steel Lily by Megan Curd

    

Title: Steel Lily

Author: Megan Curd

Expected release date: Fall 2013

Genre: Dystopian w/ hints of Steampunk

Age Group: Young Adult

Cover Designed by: Mae I Design

  AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs. She’s a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Three: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life. Or so she thinks. That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Three. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn’t any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better. …Which means digging deeper. When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, it may make her wonder if she was better off being a government tool than searching for freedom. Some secrets are better left concealed, but humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything…including the fate of your world.  

 About the Author Megan began her journey into writing as a college junior during winter finals at the encouragement of a friend. What resulted was Bridger, Megan's first full-length novel. Since then she has written the second book in the series, Traitor, and a stand-alone novel (which will hopefully become a series!) called The Guardian Chronicles: Forbidden. When not writing, Megan enjoys spending time with her husband, son, and Great Dane, aptly named Dozer. She enjoys snowboarding, playing xBox, and crocheting. Music is a huge part of her life and drives her writing. Her favorite bands are Muse, Bon Iver, Florence + the Machine, and The Civil Wars. Megan resides in Kentucky, near two of her writerly tweeps Hope Collier and Beth Isaacs, and swears it's Hope's fault she's living in the land of the banjos, but wouldn't have it any other way.

Twitter | Facebook | Steel Lily Website

 

[Spotlight/Author Interview] The Wanted Bride by Sylvia McDaniel

The Wanted Bride

Sylvia McDaniel

She’s a Runaway Bride

Valerie Burrows is running from a wedding, her attorney fiancé and the law. Pampered Valerie takes a bus to nowheresville, where she learns her cash and credit cards have been stolen. Left with only her designer clothes and luggage she takes on a new identity and must learn to be self-reliant. She swears off men, especially attorneys, only to find the one man who refuses a one night stand and wants a relationship.

He’s Looking For A Wife

Matt Jordan, the Colorado Crusher, is the most successful liability lawyer in the state. After the death of his brother-in-law, he realizes he’s ready to settle down with a family of his own. His only requirements are intelligent, great-looking, wants more than a hook-up and doesn’t lie. After witnessing the lies his father told his mother, he demands complete honesty. Yet Valerie Brown shows him sometimes in order to find yourself, you must become someone else. Even if that means lying.

Author Interview

How did you get started writing?

All my life I have been a voracious reader.  One day I read a particularly bad historical romance and thought, I could do a better job.  So I bought a typewriter (yes, this was before home computers) and started a book.  I quickly learned that it's not as easy as it appears, but I finished that novel that terrible first draft and realized I loved writing.  At that point, I began the journey to learn how to craft stories. Along the way, I met some fantastic writers who not only taught me the craft, but some were my critique partners who helped guide me on this journey.  It took me three books and eight years before I published.  I published nine historicals with a major New York Publisher before I decided to go straight Indie.

Tell us about your current book.

My book, The Wanted Bride is a runaway bride story. My heroine is an only child who has received everything she wanted and never had to work hard in her life. But that’s about to change.

What is your favorite part of writing?

I love to storyboard an idea, so that I have the necessary map to take me on the journey. Then I sit down and I let the fingers fly on the keyboard, while the movie plays in my head.  I'm sort of the stenographer at his point, just getting the story down on paper. I hit roadblocks and things change along the way, but to me this is the best part of writing, just letting the story flow onto the page.

What is your least favorite part of writing?

My least favorite part of writing is the last draft.  At this point, I've edited the story 3-4 times. Usually around draft 5, I have everything the way I want and I'm going back through to make certain that the scenes work, end on a hook, setting, grammar, etc.  By the last draft, I'm ready for the story to end and to start thinking of a new project.

What is your next project and when will it be released?

Right now, I'm working on the first draft of a Christmas novella that is about the matchmaking mother in my Burnett Brides series.  I thought she deserved her own story.  So Eugenia Meets Her Match is what I’m currently working on.

What is your typical day like?

I get up at six am, ride the elliptical for twenty minutes and then I'm off to the computer.  I work on the computer for an hour and then get ready for the day job.  The day job is working for a small insurance agency, where I take care of commercial insurance for clients.  I'm home at five thirty and back on the computer until supper time.  Eat a quick bite and then back on the computer until about nine o'clock, when the body wears out and the eyes start to see double.  I sit downstairs and watch several taped TV shows, until I crash into bed about eleven o'clock.  

How has your experience with self-publishing been?

I absolutely love self-publishing. I'm learning as I go, but I know that I don't have the time to do everything, so I am hiring out editing, cover design and formatting.  That being said it's really important that you find someone who is good at the formatting.  I’m in charge of my own destiny and if I fail, it's no one's fault but my own.

What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish?

I was scared to try. I also didn't want to be seen as someone who was "vanity" publishing. It took me hearing from at least three people that this was the future and how successful they were before I decided to put out my backlist.  Now, I doubt I ever sell to another New York Publisher. I'm not a New York Times Bestseller yet, but I'm doing okay and I'm publishing again. I'm hearing from readers again. I'm back doing what I love and I'm not waiting for an editor or agent to send me a rejection letter any longer.  Now I'm working at my pace, not a publishers pace.  I'm happier than I've been in years and it just feels right for me.

What if you found out five minutes before you walk down the aisle, that your best-friend is pregnant by your fiancé? Everyone is seated in the church when Valerie goes running out the door, jumps in his vintage corvette to escape until the car breaks down in downtown Dallas. 

I won’t tell you what she did, but there’s a reason it’s called The Wanted Bride.  If you like sassy heroines and tales of women who change, then you’ll enjoy The Wanted Bride. 

About the Author

Sylvia McDaniel and her very supportive husband Don, the love of her life, live in Texas with son Shane, Putz the klutzy dachshund and Ashley our shy dachshund. During the day, she works for a small insurance agency, helping clients with their commercial insurance coverage. The weekends are spent working out in the garden until the temperature climbs above ninety degrees. Currently, she's written fourteen novels. Her novel, A Hero's Heart, was a 1996 Golden Heart Finalist. Sylvia is the President Elect of Dallas Area Romance Authors.

www.amazon.com/author/sylviamcdaniel

www.sylviamcdaniel.com

@WriterSylvia

http://sylviamcdaniela.blogspot.com/

http://plottingprincesses.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SylviaMcDanielAuthor

[Release Event] Love in Darkness by E. M. Tippetts

Love in Darkness

E. M. Tippetts

Alex had everything when he was with Madison. But the darkness within him wouldn't go away.  After two years apart, he returns to Pelican Bluffs and to the girl he never wanted to leave. Madison wants to give their love another chance, but Alex can't fight fate. 

He is what he is. 

Ruined. Crazy like his mother. And Madison deserves so much more. When his secrets spill out into their small town, Alex has a choice to make. Hide away in the darkness forever, or let love in.

Excerpt 

My first memory of my mom’s schizophrenia is of her, locked in the bathroom of our home back in California, shrieking that “they” were coming in the windows. I was maybe four years old, and the only one able to talk to her because she always lapses into Japanese when she gets scared. I didn’t know how to call the police. I wasn’t even in kindergarten yet. I just sat outside the bathroom door and begged her to let me in. Maternal instinct won out and she opened the door, then told me to call for help. She showed me how to use the phone.

After that, I became Mom’s protector. I was the one who made sure she took her medication by begging her to open the childproof bottles and dumping the pills into a pill sorter that put a dose in each compartment. I was the one who warded off the social workers who wanted to take her away or me away or both, by playing games and refusing to speak if they separated us. I was the one who became her legal guardian when I turned eighteen. I’ll be the one to look after her for the rest of her colorful and tortured life. Assuming I can hold it together.

My life isn’t one I’d wish on my worst enemy. I love my mother, but her condition destroyed my childhood. Whoever ends up responsible for me is in for a similar catastrophe. There’s not much I can control about losing my mind, but I can control this: The person responsible for me will never be Madison Lukas. She deserves better than that. Even if I have to break my own heart a thousand times over to give her freedom, I’ll do it, because I love her more than she could ever imagine. She’s everything to me.

About the Author

Emily Mah Tippetts writes romance under the name E.M. Tippetts and science fiction and fantasy under the name Emily Mah. Originally from New Mexico, she now lives in London with her family. Before she was a published author, she was an attorney who specialized in real estate, contracts, and estate planning, especially literary estate planning. 

Her most recent pro publications have been her science fiction and fantasy short stories in magazines like Black Gate, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and the anthology, Shanghai Steam.

[Cover Reveal + Model Interview] Off The Record by Sawyer Bennett

 

Title: Off the Record

Author: Sawyer Bennett

Expected release date: June 11, 2013

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Age Group: New Adult

Cover designed by: Vitalink

Cover reveal organized by: AToMR Tours

  

 The sparks of dislike burn hot, but the sparks of mutual attraction burn even hotter. Ever Montgomery suffered the ultimate betrayal by the one man who she should have been able to count on for anything. It has left her hurt, jaded and incapable of forming relationships, but it also means that she can spot a liar a mile away. These traits are earning her a reputation as a reporter with a keen nose for a good story and a complete understanding of the extreme power of the written word. Lincoln Caldwell, is the hot goalie for the New York Rangers. At twenty-four and a rising star, he works hard and he plays even harder. He’s gorgeous and carefree—the ultimate charmer. Ladies fall at his feet and the single life has never been lived the way Linc Caldwell does it. When Ever publishes an article about Linc containing information that she received off the record, she finds herself on the receiving end of the athelete’s fury. Rather than basking in the glory of exposing Linc as a shameless user of women, she finds herself at his mercy when he demands and receives retribution. Required by her editor to trail Linc for six weeks, Ever is forced to look at the real Linc Caldwell. And she just might find that she has misjudged him.

Want to know about the gorgeous man on the Book Cover? Read Sawyer's interview "Cover Model Jay Byars – way more than just a pretty face!" and find out all about him! Click on the photo below to be redirected to the page: 

About the Author
Sawyer Bennett is the pen name for a snarky southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. She is married to a mobster (well, a market researcher) and they have two big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Sawyer would like to report she doesn't have many weakness but can be bribed with a nominal amount of milk chocolate.  

Sawyer Bennett | Facebook | Twitter

[Book Review] Eyes Of Ember by Rebecca Ethington

Eyes Of Ember
Rebecca Ethington 

Joclyn is in hiding, hunted by the man she still desperately loves. Ryland is gone, his mind erased, no memory of Joclyn remains. But, Joclyn’s heart desperately begs her to hold out hope. While, in reality the black eyed monster that possesses him, attempts to kill her over and over.

If it wasn’t for Ilyan, Joclyn would be dead by now. 

Ilyan. The man who once stalked her, is now Joclyn’s protector, the only thing she has left. He protects Joclyn from the men who seek to end her life, and while she is haunted by dreams where Ryland begs her to break the bond between them. 

Ilyan is there. Always there.

Ilyan trains and prepares her, teaching her everything she needs to know in the hope that one day she can avenge Ryland, if not protect herself from him.

And then there is her father.

The man who has never been there, is suddenly responsible for everything. And who he is has made Joclyn into something she never wanted to be.

The Silnỳ.

Overall Score: 4 Stars

Wow. That was some book. I honestly wasn't expecting this turn of events because if you read the first book, it's a complete opposite of what Eyes of Ember brings! So much intensity and action, I didn't know what to expect next. & Ilyan???? -drool- Please please please let me  have some Ilyan in my life! I've always been sucker for romantic tenstion and the whole breath-holding action and the author nailed it! 

"I was where my heart held out hope that someday I would be again. It was the reason I never forgot him. My heart had held onto him. And as he clung to me, as he soothed me, held me, I felt everything begin to relax.” 

                

[Book Blast + Giveaway] The Trouble with Toads by Danyelle Leafty

  The Trouble with Toads 

Danyelle Leafty

 Once upon a time a young girl wanted revenge. But first, she wanted to be beautiful. Twelve-year-old Bettony has read enough stories that begin with ‘Once upon a time’ to know what happens to the ugly stepsisters at the end, and she’s determined to escape that fate by any means necessary—even by magic. Unfortunately, when it comes to magic, there is no place for regret, refunds, or exchanges. Even if you accidentally turn your older sister into a toad. If Bettony wants her Happily Ever After to end well, she’s going to have to find a way to turn her sister back into a person before their mother finds out she’s been dabbling with magic and grounds her for life. Tracking down the family magic turns out to be surprisingly easy. Now, if only it came with directions . . . THE TROUBLE WITH TOADS (45,000 words) is the first book in a new upper MG series The Secret Stepsister Society. The second book will be released Summer 2013.

Amazon

About the Author 

  Danyelle Leafty writes upper MG and YA fantasy, and is the author of THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA series. Danyelle has always loved fairy tales, and prefers stories where someone gets eaten, or at the very least, transmogrified. Much of her inspiration has come from fairy tales, because as G.K. Chesterton so aptly states, "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She also collects books, and one day hopes to make a house out of them. She enjoys learning languages, fiddling with her harp, and perfecting the fine art of mothering. (It's a lot like trying to herd chickens during a lightning storm while a goat stampede is going on.) One of her heroes is Albert Einstein, particularly for the following quote: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The most important thing is not to stop questioning."

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Blog

Book Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 6/10/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer <a href="http://www.iamareader.com" target="_blank">http://iamareader.com</a> and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Prize value $50 US.

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