Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Winner of the Most Memorable Man of Service award



The Winner of the Gift Basket goes to
Christina H.!
  • Morgan Ashbury:  $10 Strandbucks
  • Maria Elena Alonso Sierra: E-book - one each of her books : (1) The Coin and (1) The Book of Hours
  • Andrew Jericho: All three e-books in the Rock Series: "Rock Hard" (Rock Stars 1), "Sex, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll" (Rock Stars 2), and "Flirting with Heaven" (Rock Stars 3)
  • Amber Daulton: one ebook copy of 'A Hero's Heart'
  • Paige Tyler: signed paperback of Hungry Like The Wolf
  • Jessica Lemon: signed paperback Forgotten Promises ARC
  • Lavinia Kent: signed paperback Ravishing Ruby ARC

Top 5 Most Memorable Men of Service are

5.
DEA Agent James Caldo


4.
Soldier Matthew Buchanan


3.
Lt. Dan Gamez
2.
Sheriff Adam Kendall


and the #1 Most Memorable Man of Service is

1.
SEAL Jack Preston

HIDING IN FEAR
Beth Hildago feels shattered after the time she spent in the hands of the Mexican drug cartel. Now her life is on the line as corrupt authorities try to hunt her down.

FIERCE PROTECTOR
Jack Preston is a decorated Navy SEAL whose family’s Texas Ranch is the perfect place for Beth to hide.

ON THE RUN
When Beth’s cover is blown, she is once again forced to run. This time Jack is not going to leave her side. But what happens when there is an enemy no one ever expected? Can he keep her safe?



Fast Love

http://amzn.to/23LJsKf

Fast Love by Zoe Adams

Genre: Billionaire Romance, Western Romance

Release: December 8, 2015

Publisher: Limitless Publishing

Book Blitz: May 23, 2016

http://amzn.to/23LJsKf

Indiana Bernstein lives life in the fast lane. She burns through school in a hurry to grow up and become the woman dating the man of her dreams.

Buy now or read for free with Kindle Unlimited:

Amazon USAmazon UK

Excerpt:

Indiana couldn’t believe he noticed her. It made her dizzy just to be next to this symbol of manliness. Or maybe it was the sweet aroma of the cigar. There could be any reason for her dizziness.

Luckily Richard stopped talking for a moment. He puffed and twisted a cigar. Smoke twirled pleasantly in the night breeze. “Your smile was all I could see in my rearview mirror today. I wish I always had a smiling face ahead of me like that. But it’s your birthday and your night of wishes, isn’t it? All right, well, here is your birthday present from me. I’ll let you drive my car around the block.”

He pulled keys from his pocket and held them up. Nothing ever shone so brightly for Indiana. They were worn out but still glimmered in the moonlight. She couldn’t move or place trust in the promise. Richard put the keys in her hand. He backed away with worlds of charm.

“Come on,” he said.

Indiana’s legs were willed to move. Encouragement from him was rare but always well placed. She got in the car. Richard saw to her comfort with the steering wheel and moved the seat forward until her feet were within proper proximity of the pedals.

He crouched down on his heels and eyed her gravely. “Now this car’s an automatic, so you only have two pedals. Use the same foot for gas as you do for the brakes.”

 Indy had already figured all of this out and rolled her eyes. Richard shut the driver’s door with a chuckle. She watched him walk around the hood of the car. He stood out like the finest thing. The grey smoke around him added charm. The black night made everything else drop away. The passenger door creaked when it opened.

 “I’ll have to remember to grease this hinge. It might ruin some poor girl’s eardrums. Whew, it’s a good thing I found that out.” Richard looked at her like he had just avoided the biggest catastrophe.

Indiana reminded herself of her youth, but she silently vowed not to act uneducated. She waited for his comfort to be assured.

He rolled down the window and hung the cigar outside of the car. He looked at her expectantly. “Do I have to show you how to drive?” Indiana shook her head and quit staring at the impressive man beside her.

The ignition turned easily. Indiana’s eyes rose appreciatively to the windshield. She had been obsessing about cars her whole racing bred life. The lights were clicked on, and she smoothly reversed into the night. The gas pedal moved slowly and the car responded. She sat back comfortably once she reached a steady speed.

“If I were a judge I would say this isn’t your first time driving a car.” The glowing ember of cigar reflected in the glass, and more whispers of smoke billowed into the air.

“It’s easy,” Indiana said defiantly. “I want to drive like you were driving.” Indiana let her eyes stray from the road for emphasis.

“All right.” He threw the cigar out the window and rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Go ahead and stop the car. Now keep your foot on the brake while you accelerate. When you see the revolutions of the motor get up to three thousand, let off the brakes. You know which one is the RPM gauge, right?”

Indiana nodded excitedly.

“Okay, good.” Richard could command any situation. But his sharp attention to detail, while keeping a relaxed stature, had Indiana ready to please. “Now remember you are guiding the car. Keep your hands loose on the wheel, then it’ll be easier to keep the car straight.”

 Indiana pushed her foot down on the gas. The thought of letting go of restraints got her excited. She did what he told her to do. The car popped into sudden speed. A laugh escaped her body. Indiana didn’t know if she had ever had so much fun.

“All right, that’s good, but you don’t need to go over fifty miles an hour.” Indiana slowed to the next stop along the slightly inhabited road.

http://amzn.to/23LJsKf

About the Author:

Zoe Adams currently resides in Hawaii. She was born to a big family in the center of North America. A family store gave a lot of human interaction and work experience from a very young age.
Her mother gave a love for books, paper, pens, and any other creative mediums. Her father instilled work ethic for making, repairing, or polishing things until they shine. There was a lot of competition in the large family and Zoe learned how to tell a good story with few words.
When not writing she manages vacation rentals in world renowned Lanikai Beach. She can be found on the beach or kayaking with her husband and partner of thirteen years. They have no children but are perfectly content to spoil a dog.

Website FacebookTwitterGoodreads

Monday, May 30, 2016

Most Memorable Man of Service: Voting on Top 10


This Memorial Day we are grateful to the real Military and First Responders who work so hard to keep us safe.

We are also grateful for the fictional counterparts they have inspired for providing us with action packed stories and hot steamy reads.  Duty and Devotion, Loyalty and Protection are knightly qualities, even in the modern age.

The Nominees are in and the top 10 are listed alphabetically below. 

First I would like to think the sponsor of our Gift Basket to be randomly given out to a participant who nominated or voted. 

  • Morgan Ashbury:  $10 Strandbucks
  • Maria Elena Alonso Sierra: E-book - one each of her books : (1) The Coin and (1) The Book of Hours
  • Andrew Jericho: All three e-books in the Rock Series: "Rock Hard" (Rock Stars 1), "Sex, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll" (Rock Stars 2), and "Flirting with Heaven" (Rock Stars 3)
  • Amber Daulton: one ebook copy of 'A Hero's Heart'
  • Paige Tyler: signed paperback of Hungry Like The Wolf
  • Jessica Lemon: signed paperback Forgotten Promises ARC
  • Lavinia Kent: signed paperback Ravishing Ruby ARC





Sheriff Adam Kendall

S&R  captain Callum Cook


Lt. Dan Gamez


Sergeant Devin Ulysses Clay


SEAL Jack Preston


DEA Agent James Caldo


Master Chief James Jones

FBI Detective Julian Darcangelo



Soldier Matthew Buchanan

Sheriff Paul Creed in




VOTE HERE


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Friday, May 27, 2016

Most Memorable Men of Service



Who is the Most Memorable Man of Service
(Military or First Responders)?

May is a special month for appreciating the men and women of the military and first responders.  We cannot thank them enough for their commitment, duty, and honor. 

V-E Day -- 8th 
World Red Cross Day / World Red Crescent Day --8th
Police Officer's Memorial Day --15th 
National Police Week -- third week of month
Armed Forces Day -- third Saturday of month
Emergency Medical Services Week -- fourth week of month

Memorial Day-- last Monday of month.

That same commitment, duty, and honor found in the line of duty is also appreciated in a relationship.  That's why military and first responders make such great heroes and Book Boyfriends! So who is your favorite?

This weekend we are looking for the Most Memorable Man of Service.  Nominees will be accepted May 27-29.  The Top 10 nominees will be placed on a Final Ballot on Memorial Day May 31 for voting. 

Come back each day to nominate.  Each nomination and vote will count as an entry to win the Most Memorable Gift Basket filled with books and swag goodies. 










NOMINATE HERE
Nominees are fictional characters engaged in military or first responder activities (police, SWAT, Firefighter, etc), and other careers that are similar in nature. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, May 26, 2016

To Love A Wolf: 6 FREE Advanced chapters



Title: To Love a Wolf
Series: SWAT, #4
Author: Paige Tyler
Pubdate: June 6th, 2016
Can be read as a stand-alone
ISBN: 9781492638742

HE’S FOUND THE ONE

SWAT officer Landry Cooper is certain Everly Danu is The One. The problem is, she has no idea what Cooper really is. And as much as he wants to trust her, he’s not sure he can share his deepest secret…

When Everly’s family discovers Cooper’s a werewolf, her brothers will do anything to keep them apart—they’ll kill him if they have to. Everly is falling hard for the ridiculously handsome SWAT officer, and she’s not about to let her brothers tell her who she can love… Until Cooper’s secret is exposed and she discovers the man she thought she knew is a monster in disguise.

BUT CAN HE KEEP HER?

Review by pearls
This series just gets better and better! Cooper's been laughing as each of his SWAT team members have fallen hard for their mates.  Now it's his turn, and he's eating his own words.  That act of humility endears him to me as he enters the relationship from a different angle than the others.  Everly is easily someone I could be friends with, making this couple easy to relate to.  Especially the storyline of a family that doesn't accept the relationship.  Can Everly accept his secret and the her own secret past as they are both revealed to her?  And that's just the internal conflict.  There's plenty of danger and opportunity's for SWAT to come to the rescue.   

Paige Tyler is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy, romantic fiction. Paige writes books about hunky alpha males and the kick-butt heroines they fall in love with. She lives with her very own military hero (a.k.a. her husband) and their adorable dog on the beautiful Florida coast. Visit http://paigetylertheauthor.com/.


Buy Links:

Paige Tyler releases TO LOVE A WOLF, the fourth in her high-octane SWAT series, this June. To celebrate,we’re giving you the first SIX chapters to read FOR FREE!

Download the first six chapters here.

To get you started, we’ve included the first few pages below.

***

Outside Samarra City, Iraq, 2009
Staff Sergeant Landry Cooper moved carefully through the rubble covering the floor of the partially demolished building, inching his way closer to the target. The maze of shattered brick and broken pieces of wood weren’t the biggest reason he was moving slowly, though. That had more to do with the hundred-degree temperature and the seventy-five-pound Kevlar bomb suit he was wearing. He despised the army’s suit with a passion that few people outside the Explosive Ordnance Disposal community could understand.
It wasn’t simply that it was hot and heavy. No, what he hated most about the suit was the nearly complete sensory deprivation that came with wearing it. Inside the claustrophobic helmet surrounded by a neck gusset designed to keep your head from getting ripped off your body during an explosion, you couldn’t hear much of anything, your line of sight was distorted by the thick, curved face piece, and your peripheral vision was non­existent. Having to make a manual approach—better known in EOD circles as the long walk—on a suspected improvised explosive device, or IED, was bad enough. Doing it when you had an armor-plated pillow wrapped around your head?
That sucked.
But he didn’t have a choice. Local construction workers had come in this morning and found a sus­pected IED half buried in the dirt between two build­ings. Cooper and his team had been able to use a robot to drop a small demolition charge near the device, but his disposal charge, combined with a bang from the IED, had caused part of the surrounding buildings to collapse, pissing off the locals and making it impossible to get the robot back in to clear the area. 
If there was one cardinal rule in EOD, it was that you never released an incident location back to the good guys without being one hundred percent sure all hazards had been cleared. That meant doing a manual approach in the bomb suit to make sure there weren’t any explo­sive materials or secondary devices around.
Cooper wasn’t too worried about walking up to the package he’d just blown in place. While the relation­ship between the city’s Sunni population and ruling Shiite government forces would never be described as anything other than tense, lately things had been better. IED responses were way down, and they hadn’t seen a secondary explosive device, typically planted to target police and other first responders, in months. 
Still, he played everything by the book, keeping the protected front of his suit facing the spot where the IED had been, and using the building’s structure for protec­tion as much as possible. At the same time, he kept his head on a swivel, looking for anything that seemed out of place.
“I’m about twenty feet from where we blew the IED,” he murmured over his suit’s radio to his team members waiting in the safe area three hundred yards away, and then remembered he was wasting his breath. The damn radio had stopped working about a month ago, and a replacement wasn’t due for weeks. He was on his own.
Sweat trickled down his nose as he stepped over a low wall and moved toward the crater where the IED had been. He automatically lifted a hand to wipe the sweat from his face and thumped against the plastic face piece. 
“Shit, I hate this suit,” he muttered, forced to make due with wiggling his nose.
He reached the edge of the shallow crater and looked down. Two feet deep and six across, it looked like a big soup bowl. There were some rusty nails the bomb maker had added for fun, but the IED itself was long gone. Even better, his demo shot hadn’t exposed another one buried underneath.
Cooper pulled a sharpened fiberglass rod out of his pocket, then jumped into the crater. If there was any­thing here, the blast from the disposal shot would have uncovered it, but it didn’t hurt to check. Unfortunately, the heavy spine protector in the suit that helped keep an EOD tech’s back from being crushed if blown backward against something hard meant he had to squat down like a sumo wrestler to stick the probe into the dirt. He ignored the sweat and aggravation and made it work.
He’d moved almost all the way around the shot hole and was about to climb out to walk around the rest of the area when his probe hit something hard. He tensed, but then relaxed. He was still here, so it couldn’t be that bad. Dropping to one knee, he used his hand to slowly uncover what he’d found. When a horizontal, cylindri­cal pipe took shape, he assumed it was a water or sewer line.
They weren’t exactly common in structures as old as this one, but it could have been placed here to supply another building nearby. As he uncovered it, the pipe began to get smaller on one end. His gut clenched as realization dawned on him. He brushed off more dirt, revealing the nose of the 155-millimeter artillery round, as well as the metal electrical conduit extending out of it and running underground.
Fuck.
Cooper pushed himself to his feet and backpedaled toward the edge of the crater as fast as he could. An artillery round didn’t usually have a conduit sticking out the end. This one had been booby-trapped so the bomber could set it off manually whenever he wanted. The conduit was there so the IED wouldn’t cut the line if an EOD tech like him destroyed it. And with the conduit there, Cooper couldn’t cut the line either. 
This device was an EOD killer put there because somebody knew a bomb tech would come down and look around before turning the site over to the local police. 
His mind raced. A projectile this size carried fifteen pounds of high explosive. When it went off, even a bomb suit as good as the one he had on was unlikely to stop all the frag that came off it. 
He reached the top of the crater and backed away as fast as he could. He would have been able to run faster if he turned around, but the weakest part of a bomb suit was the rear. If this thing went off when his back was to it, he’d have no chance.
Time slowed as a thousand thoughts zipped through his head. How he seriously didn’t want to die. How maybe the bomber on the other end of that firing line might have needed to go take a piss, and the 155 wouldn’t go off. How his parents and brothers were going to be crushed when they found out. How he should have gone to the prom with that cute girl in his math class back in high school. How one of the junior members on his team was going to be forced to step up and take over his job. How the new unit lieutenant was going to have to write a condolence letter on his first fucking day on the job.
Cooper pushed those thoughts away, yanking his hands inside the arms of the suit to keep them from get­ting ripped off in the blast as he focused his attention on moving backward as fast as he could. 
Just get twenty feet away. Then you might have a chance.
He didn’t make it ten.
The blast threw him backward before his head even registered the flash of the projectile exploding. Luckily, he was so close that the wave took out the brick wall behind him before he could smash into it. But that luck ran out, and he slammed into the one behind it.
He felt a sharp stab in his back, then nothing from the middle of his chest down. The suit’s spine support had broken—and so had his back.
He hit the ground hard, tumbling like a kid’s toy until he came to a sudden stop against a pile of bricks. He felt pain—lots of it—at least from the chest up. He wasn’t sure how he was able to, but he lifted his head enough to look down, and saw long, jagged fragments from the 155 sticking out of him like he was a damn pincushion.
Cooper let his head drop to the ground and swore long and hard. He was so fucked.
A detached part of his mind noticed that pieces of the building were burning around him. That was interesting, considering how little flammable material was in the area. The flames weren’t too bad, but the smoke would probably choke him to death sooner or later. Not that he was likely to live long enough for that to happen. The frag had penetrated the bomb suit. He’d bleed out fast enough. He’d just be too numb to feel it. 
Then someone was at his side, roughly prying up his face, telling him to hold on. That’s when he realized his ears weren’t working right. He could barely hear the person speaking. No shock there. The blast had blown out his eardrums.
He opened his eyes, expecting to see one of his junior teammates, and was shocked when he saw that it was Jim Wainwright, a fellow senior team leader and the best friend he’d ever had. Cooper hadn’t even known another team had arrived.
“Get the hell out of here!” Cooper shouted. Or at least he tried to. The words came out as nothing but a gurgling whisper. “Jim, you know this is stupid. There could be another device down here.” 
Jim didn’t answer, but simply shoved his arms under the bomb suit, as if he thought he could pick up Cooper and carry him out of here. He didn’t bother to tell his friend how stupid that was. Besides all the frag sticking out of his body, making the task of picking him up akin to hugging a porcupine, Cooper and the bomb suit he wore weighed nearly three hundred pounds combined.
There was no way in hell Jim could pick him up.
“Go!” he ordered again. “You know I’m done anyway.”
Jim ignored him. Tears running down his face, he tried grabbing the heavy-duty rescue strap at the suit’s shoulder and dragged him across the rubble.
“Shit!” Cooper wailed in agony, white-hot fire shooting through his neck and shoulders. “Just fucking leave me alone and let me die!”
Jim disregarded that request too, grunting like a crazy man as he dragged Cooper over, around, and through the obstacles that separated them from the dilapidated building’s exit. Cooper was stunned his friend could actually move him at all. He’d heard of soldiers doing some insane shit in battle to save a buddy, but this had to be the craziest. Too bad he was already a goner. Cooper only hoped Jim would get a medal out of it. Then, at least, one good thing would come out of this day.
Cooper didn’t get much time to think about what the award write-up would sound like because the pain climbing up his neck like a wave of water drowned him until everything went black.
Download the first six chapters of To Love a Wolf here!

Publisher's Giveaway
Exclusive to Inner Goddess followers
one print copy of the first book in the SWAT series
Hungry Like the Wolf

INTRODUCING SWAT:
SPECIAL WOLF ALPHA TEAM
They're tight
They're on target
They're as alpha as men can get


The Dallas SWAT team is hiding one helluva secret...they're a pack of wolf shifters.

The team of elite sharpshooters is ultra-secretive-and also the darlings of Dallas. This doesn't sit well with investigative journalist Mackenzie Stone.

They must be hiding something...and she's determined to find out what.

To Enter the Contest,
answer the question in the comments below
(leave an email so we can contact you)
Random.org will choose a winner
on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016

If you were a reporter, what question would you ask a Wolf Shifter/SWAT member?

Rough Terrain, a second chances romance

Rough Terrain - tour header
Wes Davis left Vista Falls when the girl he loved got pregnant and decided they were too young and irresponsible to be parents. He signed the adoption papers, but he never stopped loving the baby he’d never met. Years passed, success found him, but there was a hole in his heart and life that he knew only one thing could fill. His son.
Sage Breville was stunned to learn her ex-boyfriend was back in town. With him came a rush of memories and questions about the kind of life they could have had if she’d been brave enough to stand up to her parents years ago and raise the child she’d so desperately wanted with the man she loved.
There were some wounds time couldn’t heal, and Sage was convinced there was no way back for them. But did Wes see it her way or was he ready to forgive… and move on?
AMAZON / B&N / SMASHWORDS / KOBO / iBOOKS

MEET THE AUTHOR

Cheryl Douglas - Author Photo
When one door closes, another one opens. I closed the door to my business for the last time in 2011, which left me with a decision. What now? Find another location and move my nutrition business, go to work for someone else, or take a chance on my dream? I chose the latter and I’ve never looked back!
I’ve always loved reading and writing, but it wasn’t until I jumped in with both feet and decided writing would be my career, instead of just a hobby, that my muse woke up from her deep slumber.
It was like someone flipped a switch inside my head and stories just came pouring out. At the end of the day, I would often look at the keyboard and wonder, ‘Who the heck wrote that? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me!’
I don’t write books. I tell stories, or rather, I allow my characters to tell their stories through me. I’m not a plotter, never have been, never will be. Why? Because I have no idea how the story will evolve and it’s not my place to manipulate it. My job is to get to know these characters, figure out what makes them tick, then follow their journey wherever it takes me.
When I’m not writing, I’m daydreaming. Thankfully, I have an understanding husband and son who know I’ll re-join the land of the living just as soon as my muse decides it’s quitting time. I don’t work for myself. I work for her. She’s the boss. And I’m okay with that.

Tease Me Thursday

Tease Me Thursday Mia Hoddell

Bet on Me by Mia Hoddell

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - iBooks

#Synopsis: It's all a game until they're betting with their lives.
Alaya Matthews is in search of freedom. Tired of her mundane life, she packs everything she owns into two bags and heads for Europe. Her plan is simple: see the world and be adventurous, don't get tied down, don't settle for less than her heart's desires, and never fall in love.
However, Alaya didn't plan for Cole Ashford.
Drawn to her love of life, Cole wants to know how to live again. For seven years he's been dead inside, and the numerous threats hanging over his head have finally caught up with him. What Cole doesn't realise is accepting Alaya's help will mean confronting every part of his tainted past. Alaya is desperate to know what haunts him, and she's so certain he'll reveal it she invents a bet he can't refuse.
One is never enough though, and as they grow closer together, the more daring their wagers become. Neither of them will back down from a challenge, but the stakes are being raised. Gambling on Cole may cost Alaya her heart, or even worse, her life.

Stephanie Witter

We Shouldn't And Yes by Stephanie Witter

Amazon - Barnes & Noble - iBooks

#Synopsis: What happens when you’re attracted to the wrong person?
AIDEEN
I didn't expect to feel so drawn to my best friend’s father when I first meet him.
It’s unexplainable and most of all, it’s unexpected. He drinks too much, is rough around the edges, and is so obviously into casual sex and nothing more, but there’s just something about him that calls out to me.
I’ve thought my heart was battered beyond repair, but maybe I have been wrong.
"There was something so sexual, so carnal, so intense in the way Jensen looked at me.’’
JENSEN
She is my son’s best friend and I know he wants more, but I can't help it. Whenever she is around or her name is mentioned I’m turned on. I’m not used to denying myself to feeling so strongly for a woman so young, but she gets me.
I can’t do a damn thing to stop these feelings.
No amount of alcohol helps.
I didn’t think it could be possible to feel so drawn to a woman, but it looks like I have been dead wrong.
"I want her to want me just as madly as I do her.’’
They shouldn’t and yet…
They can’t resist each other.
For readers over 18. Standalone novel.