Showing posts with label Q-and-A. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Q-and-A. Show all posts

Saturday, March 27, 2021

#BlogTour - Fighting the Fire by Laura Kaye | #BookRelease, Spreading the Word, a Mystery Box #Giveaway, & More @InkSlingerPR



Today we have the blog tour for Laura Kaye’s new contemporary romance, FIGHTING THE FIRE! Check it out and order yours now!





Title: Fighting the Fire

Author: Laura Kaye

Genre: Contemporary Romance



Here’s what you’ll get in Fighting the Fire:

Smart-ass firefighter hero who's also a closet nerd

Kick-ass ER nurse heroine

Frenemies to lovers when she nurses him back to health

Superhero movie marathon fun

Snarky banter for days!


Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Blog Tour - Love's Remains by Jacqueline Simon Gunn / @DrJSimonGunn | #AuthorInterview, Spreading the Word, & Multiple Item #Giveaway! #LovesRemainsPT @PrismBookTours

Today I'm showing off Jacqueline Simon Gunn's "Love’s Remains," which is her recently released novel, the SECOND novel in her Where You'll Land Series, and the novel I recently interviewed her about!

ALSO -- Be sure to check out the Rafflecopter Contest at the bottom of this post to be able to sign up for this blog tour's GIVEAWAY!! [Promotion for this post will run from July 22 - 28, 2019 and its Giveaway will end on July 31, 2019]



** This site is a participant in various affiliate advertising programs through Amazon.com, Rakuten Marketing, Commission Junction, IndieBound, Smashwords, Book Depository, and more that are designed to provide a means for Jess to earn minimal advertising fees by showcasing the areas you can purchase the corresponding products that Jess discusses within her blog posts.
All of these affiliate links are obvious as to which ones they are.
**



My Q&A with Jacqueline Simon Gunn :

Jess : Which usually comes first for you, the character(s), story or the idea for the novel?

Jacqueline : Before I even begin writing a book, I usually have a vague sense of the story and the underlying themes I’d like to explore. When I actually start pounding the keyboard, I begin with the development of my main characters, holding the story in the back of my mind, but letting the characters sort of take over the direction. It’s like being a passenger. I’m there, but I’m not driving once we get going.

Monday, March 5, 2018

The Bridge of Deaths Book Trailer & Interview between the Brunette Bibliophile & M. C. V. Egan | Spreading the Word @brunettebiblio @M_C_V_Egan #ASMSG

Today I'm showing off M. C. V. Egan's "The Bridge of Deaths" & I am using Chloe from Brunette Bibliophile's videos to show off Ms. Egan and her novel a bit more.



Brunette Bibliophile talks about M. C. V. Egan's The Bridge of Deaths novel & shows off the Book Trailer


If you can't see/watch the above video then click here to watch it.

Brunette Bibliophile's Q&A with M. C. V. Egan


If you can't see/watch the above video then click here to watch it.



"The Bridge of Deaths"
by M. C. V. Egan

Author's Book Description :
    On August 15th, 1939, an English passenger plane from British Airways Ltd. crashed in Danish waters between the towns of Nykøbing Falster and Vordingborg. There were five casualties reported and one survivor. Just two weeks before, Hitler invaded Poland. With the world at the brink of war, the manner in which this incident was investigated left much open to doubt. The jurisdiction battle between the two towns and the newly formed Danish secret police created an atmosphere of intrigue and distrust. The Bridge of Deaths is a love story and a mystery. Fictional characters travel through the world of past life regressions and information acquired from psychics as well as archives and historical sources to solve "one of those mysteries that never get solved." Based on true events and real people, The Bridge of Deaths is the culmination of 18 years of sifting through conventional and unconventional sources in Denmark, England, Mexico and the United States. The story finds a way to help the reader feel that s/he is also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions. Cross The Bridge of Deaths into 1939, and dive into cold Danish waters to uncover the secrets of the G-AESY.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Blog Tour - Sweet Southern Bad Boy by Michele Summers | Interview, Spreading the Word, & Novel Giveaway

Today I'm showing off Michele Summers' "Sweet Southern Bad Boy," which is her recently released novel, the THIRD novel in her Harmony Homecomings Series, and the novel I recently interviewed her about!

ALSO -- Be sure to check out the Gleam contest at the bottom of this post to be able to sign up for this blog tour's GIVEAWAY!! [Promotion for this post and its Giveaway will run from December 5 - 26, 2016]



My Q&A with Michele Summers :

Jess : What sparked the idea for "Sweet Southern Bad Boy?"

Michele : I think it first started with the kids, because I’d been dealing a lot with my own active kids and my sister’s five boys. And I thought it’d be funny to see how two people with no children handle the situation.

Jess : Which of your characters would you invite or not invite to dinner?

Michele : I’d most likely invite Bertie from "Find My Way Home" to dinner because we’re both interior designers and collector of great shoes; we’d have lots to talk about. And I like her eclectic style…reminds me a lot of me! 😉 And I’d probably not invite Lucy from "Not So New In Town" because she’d get me in tons of trouble eating junk food! I wouldn’t be able to resist Cheetos and M&M’s, some of her favorites.

Jess : Which comes first for me the character’s story or the idea for the novel?

Michele : Hmmm, I think character’s story comes first. Some wacky idea will hit me about a personality quirk or a “what if” scenario and I’ll run with it and build a story around that character.

Jess : Are there any differences and/or similarities between Vance from "Sweet Southern Bad Boy" and Brogan from "Not So New In Town?"

Michele : Both are very competitive and athletic. Both have strong personalities and both played high school football together and remained close friends. Brogan was a nicer more approachable guy in high school whereas Vance was a bit on the wild side. And Brogan figured out a way to make a living with his healthy lifestyle while Vance became a writer to right some wrongs from his past.

Jess : Favorite part to write in a novel...

Michele : Hands down: the dialogue. I love to write the banter between the Hero and the Heroine or even between the best friends. If it were up to me, my books would be nothing but running dialogue with no reference to setting, time or place.

Jess : Favorite secondary characters...

Michele : My top two favorite secondary characters are Dottie Duncan, the meddling wealthy owner of the Toot-N-Tell, because she’s always butting in everyone’s business with her no-nonsense approach. She tells it like it is. And then I’d have to say Clancy Perry, the redneck tree trimmer who’s always trying to horn in and steal the heroines out from under the heroes’ noses. He was just so darn fun to write.

Jess : How many books have you written?

Michele : I’ve written four books and have to say SSBB is my all-time favorite. I still think about Vance and Katie. I loved their chemistry and the situation of taking care of those kids. They tugged at my heartstrings and made me laugh at the same time.

Jess : And other projects in the works?

Michele : Yes, I’m working on a fun series set in Miami where I lived for over 20 years. It’s centered around three brothers, all athletes in different stages of their careers and how they find love in women who are basically their complete opposites.

Jess : Favorite aspect of the holidays:

Michele : My favorite part of the holidays is time off. I love the few days before and after when everything is already prepared…or not, where we all sit around and enjoy each other’s company. Time off from work and obligations. It’s the only time I actually slow down and rest.

Jess : Cartoon character that represents your personal philosophy?

Michele : Okay, I’m not sure if this counts, but I’d have to say Belle from Beauty and the Beast, because it’s my favorite Disney fairy tale and because she was smart and did the right thing. And she ended up with the prince in the end! Perfect.

Jess : If someone wrote a biography about me, what would the title be?

Michele : "Finding Humor…amongst the crazies!"



"Sweet Southern Bad Boy"
[Harmony Homecomings Series, Book 3] by Michele Summers

Author's Book Description :
    Katie McKnight loves her job. Not really. But Katie loves her dad and this job means everything to him. Which is why she's scouting for the perfect house to film a mini-series…and that house happens to be in Harmony, NC. Now if only Katie can convince the grouchy, disheveled but totally hunky owner his home is perfect for the next teen craze, she’ll be in business.

    Bestselling author, Vance Kerner has lost his mind along with his loafers and the notes to his next novel, under dirty dishes in his kitchen. Since babysitting his brother’s three kids, he hasn’t found a moments peace. So when California Katie knocks on his door, Vance doesn’t ask questions. He simply yanks her inside and puts her in charge.

    Katie agrees to babysit, if Vance allows the film crew access to his property. Vance agrees to keep an open mind as long as he gets the peace he needs to write.

    But having Katie underfoot is anything but peaceful. And Vance is finding less and less time to write and more and more time to watch Katie weave a lovely spell on all the Kerners...especially him.

    Can these two opposites find a common ground and the love they both deserve?

This book is available to order on :

Amazon (Kindle) USD | Amazon (Paperback) USD | Barnes & Noble (NOOK Book) USD | Barnes & Noble (Paperback) USD | Shop Your Indie/Local Bookstores (IndieBound - Paperback) USD

** Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads & LibraryThing! **





About the Author :

Michele Summers writes smart romances with spunky heroines, hunky heroes and wacky characters, with sigh-worthy emotion and a satisfying happily ever after. She never tires of creating fictional towns with lovable but flawed characters. When not writing, Michele loves her career as an interior designer and works with clients in NC and Miami where she lived for over 20 years. These days she stays busy herding her college freshman and high school sophomore and spends a lot of time watching them compete in tennis.

Presently she resides in NC where she grew up with her family, but still misses sunny South Florida, swaying palm trees and wearing open-toed shoes…everyday!


My Previous Guest Post(s) by this Author : "Sweet Southern Bad Boy" is now casting actors for the main couple - November 2016

My Previous Review(s) for this Author : Not So New In Town

My Previous Mention(s) of this Author's Books/Characters : Second Sentence Saturday: Not So New In Town | Best Book Couples -- Happy Valentine's Day 2016 | Sweet Southern Bad Boy by Michele Summers | Spreading the Word & Halloween Weekend Novel Giveaway | Giveaway Winner of Our "Sweet Southern Bad Boy" Preorder Giveaway | Blog Tour - Sweet Southern Bad Boy by Michele Summers | Casting Call Spotlight, Spreading the Word, & Novel Giveaway




Book Teaser :





Giveaway!! :
Sweet Southern Bad Boy Print Copy Giveaway

Soo .... COMMENT on this post!! And you could WIN!! =0)



Find Michele Summers :

This post and teaser were put together by myself (From Me to You ... Video, Photography & Book Reviews), please contact me if you'd like your own Author Interview post and/or teaser, while the tour and giveaway is through Sourcebooks Casablanca.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Blog Tour - One More Taste by Melissa Cutler | Interview & Spreading the Word

Today I'm showing off Melissa Cutler's "One More Taste," which is her recently released novel, the SECOND novel in her One and Only Texas Series, and the novel I recently interviewed her about!



My Q&A with Melissa Cutler :

Jess : Please describe "One More Taste" in one sentence.

Melissa : When a brazen chef tries to prove her chops to her sexy new boss, they heat up a lot more than the kitchen.

Jess : What can readers expect from "One More Taste?"

Melissa : Readers can expect my signature combination of a book full of both humor and emotional resonance…with one seriously spicy romance woven throughout it.

Jess : Which of your characters would you most & least like to invite to dinner, from which book and why?

Melissa : The characters from this series that I’d most like to invite to dinner are all those hot, sexy cowboy heroes (surprise, surprise!). Decker, Micah, Knox, and (from upcoming books) Paul and Gentry. Mmm….sexy cowboy heroes at my dinner table…now there’s a dream come true!

The character from the series that I’d least like to have over for dinner, and which readers of the series would probably agree with me, is Ty Briscoe, the villain of the first three stories.

Jess : Are there any differences and/or similarities between Emily from "One More Taste" and Carina from "The Mistletoe Effect?"

Melissa : While Emily and Carina are best friends, they have very different personalities. Carina is all about becoming a mom and not working too hard, which is a shift because she used to be a work-a-holic, which Emily still is. On the other hand, Carina is a rule follower, while Emily is more of a rebel. What they do have in common is that they love each other and their home of Briscoe Ranch Resort very much.

Jess : Out of all of the secondary characters within One and Only Texas Series, do you have one or two favorites so far? If so, who are they and can you tell us why?

Melissa : What a fun question. I tend to write books that have huge casts of characters, so there are lots of secondary characters to choose from. My current favorite is from next year’s release, "ONE WILD NIGHT," and it’s the heroine’s grandmother, Mama Lita, who clashes with Granny June at every turn because, while Granny June is the consummate matchmaker of the series, Mama Lita is a wild spirit who doesn’t believe a woman needs a man in her life.

Jess : June Briscoe is one of my favorite characters. She's appeared in all the books. How did you come up with her and her amazing personality (sneakiness, quirks and all)?

Melissa : She’s one of my favorite characters in the series, too. When I wrote her character’s first ever scene, in scene one of "THE MISTLETOE EFFECT," she seemed like an old, strict Italian mafia grandma with old world superstitions at first, which probably would have been fine, but I then wrote a draft that lightened her up and turned her into the scene’s comic relief…and I instantly fell in love with her! Hence, the Granny June we all know and love was born.

Jess : Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?

Melissa : Growing up, my house wasn’t a pleasant one, and so I kept to myself in my bedroom as much as possible. In a huge way I’m grateful for the way my childhood played out, because my imagination flourished. The earliest I can remember writing stories and poems is age four. Writing them and reading books took me away to other times and places and let me live, for a little while, in magical places. Even then, I knew I was a writer, an identity that stayed with me in all the years since.

Jess : What do you think most characterizes your writing?

Melissa : What most characterizes my writing is a combination of humor and emotion weight. I’m really interested in real issues and the struggles that everyday people face in their lives, not just romantically, but with family and friends and their careers. My heroines tend to be quirky, smart, career-focused women and my heroes tend to be blue collar workers. In that way, Knox Briscoe, the hero of "ONE MORE TASTE," is unusual. I rarely write about wealthy men because they don’t tend to hold my interest, but what I love about Knox is how he rose to wealth from blue collar roots, which makes his relationship to his wealth and his family really complicated in the best, juiciest possible way for an author to explore.

Jess : What question(s) do you wish that someone would ask about "One More Taste," but no one has? Please write it out here, then answer it.

Melissa :
  1. Have you ever executed a revenge plot (like Knox does in the story)?
    • Mwahahaha! I’ll never tell! 😃
  2. Has your car or house ever been haunted by a dead relative?
    • No, but I fully plan on returning to my high school to haunt it after I pass away like the ghosts at Hogwarts do in the Harry Potter series. [kids whispering to each other] “They say she never recovered from getting that C in Spanish her freshman year, and now she walks the halls begging for extra credit to raise her grade. Poor, tortured soul.”
Jess : If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Melissa : I can’t decide between these two: 1) controlling the weather, or 2) having the power to heal people with a touch. Either one would make the world a better place in significant ways.

Jess : What literary character is most like you?

Melissa : Depends on the day. You know how it goes—some days you’re George, while other days you’re Lenny. Captain Ahab pops up every so often. And Jack Reacher, sometimes. And then there are those days that we all have when we’re Frankenstein’s monster. Mostly, I aspire to be Olivia, the pig from the children’s picture book. Oh, if we could all be more like Olivia.









"One More Taste"
[One and Only Texas Series, Book 2] by Melissa Cutler

Author's Book Description :
    If you can’t take the heat...

    Chef Emily Ford has the talent and ambition to make it in the cutthroat culinary world—which is why she refuses to accept her demotion at the hands of Knox Briscoe, the new CEO of Briscoe Ranch Resort. He has grand plans that include bringing in a celebrity chef to helm an exciting new restaurant at the resort, but Emily has plans of her own—to do whatever it takes to change his mind…

    ONE MORE TASTE

    Cut out of the Briscoe fortune by an old feud that left his family in ruins, Knox grew up dreaming of revenge. Out-maneuvering his uncle for control of Briscoe Ranch is merely the first step in a grand plan that doesn’t include the brazen and beautiful Emily Ford…or the attraction that sizzles between them. With both their futures on the line, can they keep their desires on simmer—or are they headed from the frying pan straight into the fire?

    Return to Brisoce Ranch Resort in the second book in Melissa Cutler's One and Only Texas series!

This book is available to order on :

Amazon (e-Book) USD | Amazon (Paperback) USD | Barnes & Noble (NOOK Book) USD | Barnes & Noble (Paperback) USD | Shop Your Local Bookstores (IndieBound - Paperback) USD | Kobo (e-Book) USD

** Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads & LibraryThing! **





About the Author :

Melissa Cutler knows she has the best job in the world writing sexy contemporary romances and romantic suspense. She was struck at an early age by an unrelenting travel bug and is probably planning her next vacation as you read this. When she's not globetrotting, she's enjoying Southern California's flip-flop wearing weather and wrangling two rambunctious kids.

My Previous Review(s) for this Author : The Mistletoe Effect

My Previous Mention(s) of this Author's Books/Characters : Best Book Couples -- Happy Valentine's Day 2015





Book Excerpt/Teaser(s) :

A knock sounded at the open door. Everyone turned, relieved at the distraction. A woman Knox would recognize anywhere filled the doorway, a folder clutched in her arms and a hard-set look of determination on her face. Chef Emily Ford.

***

“Ty told me about you. You’ve worked at this resort since right out of culinary school a decade ago. No internships, no stints as a sous chef at a celebrated restaurant, nothing remarkable, not even a chef competition show on TV. Your whole career, you’ve been here at Briscoe Ranch, laboring in obscurity. If you’re so talented, then why have you been holding yourself back?”

He watched the shift of her weight from one foot to the other, the extra squeeze she gave the folder in her hand. He’d hit a nerve. Good. Turnabout was fair play.

“I’m not holding myself back. All the years I’ve worked here, laboring in obscurity”—she said with a scoff—“I’ve had the freedom to cook what I want, every dish completely original instead of imitations of more prominent chefs or attempts to pander to critics’ fickle tastes. Over the last decade, I’ve risen from a graveyard-shift line cook in the room service kitchen to the executive catering chef, one of the principal roles at the resort.” She spun the folder onto his desk and speared a finger on it. “A few months ago, Ty agreed to my proposal to open a high-concept, signature restaurant at the resort. Subterranean, I’m going to call it. We were in the process of securing funding when you showed up and ruined everything.”

He took a step nearer to her, then another, stopping just short of arm’s length. This close, those freckles on her cheeks came into focus again, as did a faint, hairline scar along her jaw that curved to her chin. He refocused on her furious green eyes. “I did not take this opportunity away from you. Ty did. He was the one who contacted me, looking for investors. My presence here to execute my vision for the resort, as well as the timing of it, was at his invitation. If he let you believe your restaurant would be possible under this new vision, then he was stringing you along. He’s your enemy, not me.”

Emily blanched, but only for a split second before recovering her wits. “He wasn’t stringing me along. I’m sure he was grooming me for your takeover, knowing you’d want to step up the caliber of the resort’s dining options. He’s not my enemy. He’s the employer who gave me a chance. All I need is an open door and a budget and I will give you the restaurant of your vision.”

She’d been dead on about his sixth sense and the rush he got with each thrill of discovery. He felt that familiar rush right now while sparring with her. He couldn’t wait for her to leave so he could read her proposal. He should have eaten the damn soup. Now he’d never know what he’d missed. “You and I aren’t so different in our ambition, you know.”

She sniffed at that, feigning a nonchalance he saw right through. “You couldn’t be more wrong. I possess a patience that you clearly lack.”

Oh, this woman. She wouldn’t stop pushing his buttons. He felt heat rising on his neck. He had to stuff his hand in his pockets so he wouldn’t give in to the discomfort and tug his tie loose. Emily had no idea how much patience it had taken to wait for the right time to make his move against Ty Briscoe. Years of planning and strategy, years of positioning himself in the right business, with the right connections, silently closing in on his prey, waiting to pounce until the time was right—until the prey thought it was his idea and came to him, on the verge of bankruptcy and begging for a bailout.

“Prove it,” he heard himself say, not knowing exactly what he meant by the dare.

Her gaze was unflinching. “How?”

He had to think fast. “I’ll give you four weeks. If you can prove to me in that time that you’re as gifted a chef as you claim, then I’ll hand you the reins of the restaurant along with whatever budget you require for this . . . Subterranean.”


CREDIT: From ONE MORE TASTE by Melissa Cutler. Copyright © 2016 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Paperbacks.



Book Preview(s) :




Find Melissa Cutler :

This was put together by myself (From Me to You ... Video, Photography & Book Reviews), please contact me if you'd like your own Author Interview post, while the tour is through St. Martin's Press and they supplied some of the info/questions.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Meet Cassi Ellen | Interview, Spreading the Word, & Novel Giveaway

Today I'm showing off Cassi Ellen and her debut novel "Story of a Secret Heart" that I recently interviewed her about!

ALSO -- Be sure to check out the Gleam contest at the bottom of this post to be able to sign up for this blog stop's GIVEAWAY(s)!! [Promotion for this post and its Giveaway will run from September 21 - 28, 2016]



My Q&A with Cassi Ellen :

Jess : What sparked the idea for "Story of a Secret Heart?"

Cassi : Well I never actually intended to write a book! At 30 years old, I was living 10,000 miles away from my friends and family, when the man I planned to marry did the unthinkable and had an affair, leaving me alone and heartbroken. I started writing as sort of therapy so that I didn’t go completely mad and I guess I just got carried away. Before I knew it I had 70,000 words! I never at any point thought ‘O I’d like to be a writer’ or ‘O I think I’ll write a book’.

So I guess the idea was sparked, and I know this sounds silly, by my break up with my ex-boyfriend. It is what the book is based on, and I truly believe it changed the person I was.

Jess : Which usually comes first for you, the character(s) story or the idea for the novel?

Cassi : Well because, at first, I was writing for myself to stay sane, and not for others to actually read, I guess the character very much came first. In the beginning I just started writing down how I felt, and as things went on, and life got more and more amusing and out of control, it just turned into a book.

Jess : What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write in a novel and why?

Cassi : My favourite chapters by far are the ones towards the end of the book. I have always loved book endings anyway, but in "Story of a Secret Heart," the stories towards the end just get more and more out of control, and even now I laugh out loud when I read it back to myself.

Jess : Is "Story of a Secret Heart" basically an autobiography of you or are there any differences between you and Cassi (the character)?

Cassi : I guess I would say Cassi is a reflection of myself. Cassi was definitely who I was during that difficult time, but whether I am still the same today as I was when writing the book, I don’t think so. She was an extreme version of myself.

Jess : In regards to "Story of a Secret Heart," if you could write it all over again, would you change anything about it?

Cassi : Well it was my first book so yes I would change so many things. I would probably have paid more attention to the details, and I wish I had known at the time of writing that I would want to publish it. Editing it was an absolute nightmare because I had purely just written down my thoughts and feelings. To be very honest with you a lot of it made no sense the first time I ever read it back to myself.

Jess : How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite and why?

Cassi : Only "Story of a Secret Heart" I’m afraid. But I’m really hoping to finish the sequel, "Story After a Secret Heart," by the end of the year.

Jess : Do you have any other projects in the works? If so, can you share a little of your current work with us?

Cassi : Just "Story After a Secret Heart," and this time I’m actually really enjoying the process of writing the whole story from scratch. Before, I was so engrossed in feelings, and writing was a way of getting it out. Whereas this time around I’m enjoying planning and plotting the structure of the book. It’s a whole new world to me and so far I love it. I just hope I can try and muster up some of the raw emotion that I believe made the first book so relatable to readers.

Jess : Do you have a favorite aspect of summer that you’d like to share with us? Or have any end-of-summer plans you’re excited for?

Cassi : I love ALL aspects of summer. I love the hot weather and I am definitely a summer kind of girl! My favourite part of summer has always been just hanging out. I absolutely love to spend hot summer days sat on the grass in a park or on the beach surrounded by my friends or family.

Jess : What cartoon character best represents your personal philosophy?

Cassi : Probably Sleeping Beauty. One, because I absolutely adore animals and am always talking to them, and two, because one of favourite things to do is sleep!

Jess : List 3 books you just recently read and would recommend?

Cassi : My favourite books of all time are "Jackal’s Dance" by Beverley Harper and "A Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, both I highly recommend. The most recent book I have read is "The Girl in the Ice" by Robert Bryndza, which I very much enjoyed although I didn’t like the main character all that much.



"Story of a Secret Heart"
by Cassi Ellen

Author's Book Description :
    A broken heart hurts, but it can also be fun......

    Be warned, this story is not for everyone! It is a very personal story, about love, life and laughter, told from the heart. Be prepared for a rollercoaster ride!


    As Cassi, a 30-year old single woman, leaves a long-term, unhappy relationship, she struggles with the pain and anguish of a broken heart. When, by chance, she meets a handsome stranger, he introduces her to a world that she didn’t even know existed. As she begins to slowly forget all about her broken heart she learns to have fun again. It is then that her life starts to spiral out of control and all she can do is laugh and hang on tight. Through her trials and tribulations, Cassi has to find her inner strength and keep a smile on her face even in front of adversity.

    Story of a Secret Heart is about breaking up . . . and breaking down. It’s about the roller-coaster ride of a breakup and all the dating and relationship stories in-between.

    Based on a true story

This book is available to order on :

Amazon (e-Book) USD

** Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads & LibraryThing! **




About the Author :

When Cassi Ellen turned 30 she was single, alone and heart broken on the other side of the globe. She started writing as a sort of therapy at the time, but after people started reading it and said it was actually good, she thought maybe others might like to hear her story too. Maybe those going through a hard time will take something away from it.

Apart from that, readers will find out so much more by reading her blog and book, "Story of a Secret Heart" …….. but …… She also loves animals, especially cats, and loves to laugh!




Book Excerpt/Teaser(s) :

-- Where It All Began --


‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Where are you?’

He waited only a few seconds to answer, but I knew him well enough to know something was wrong when he answered, very distracted, with the same question I had asked him:

‘Where are you?’ he said.

At that moment, something deep inside me, and I had no idea what it was, told me to lie, and so I answered with ‘still at the fundraiser, but I’m leaving now.’ Of course that was a lie, which I immediately regretted, as I was obviously standing in our open plan kitchen at home. Despite my guilt, I quickly followed up my lie with a repeated, ‘Where are you?’

His next sentence broke my heart into a million teeny tiny little pieces, and I would never forget it. ‘I’m at home,’ he said.




Book Preview(s) :




Giveaway!! :

** WIN yourself a Kindle Copy of Cassi Ellen's STORY OF A SECRET HEART! **

From Me to You...'s Cassi Ellen Giveaway

Soo .... TWEET about this post (& more)!! And you could WIN!! =0)



Find Cassi Ellen :

This was put together by myself (From Me to You ... Video, Photography & Book Reviews) please contact me if you'd like your own author interview post.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Blog Tour - Prodigal by Jody Wallace | Interview, Spreading the Word, & Critter Prize Pack Giveaway

Today I'm showing off Jody Wallace's "Prodigal," which is her recently released novel, the THIRD novel in her Maelstrom Chronicles, and the novel I recently interviewed her about!

ALSO -- Be sure to check out Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post to be able to sign up for this blog stop's GIVEAWAY(s)!! [Blog Tour will run from September 5 - 13, 2016]



My Q&A with Jody Wallace :

Jess : Which of your characters would you most & least like to invite to dinner, from which book and why?

Jody : Most like to invite to dinner – Adam Alsing from "PRODIGAL." He has amnesia and it would be a lot of fun to introduce him to foods he hadn’t had a chance to eat yet. Plus he’s very friendly and a good conversationalist and would maybe even charm my mother.

Least like to invite to dinner – his love interest, Claire, also from "PRODIGAL." She would probably hate my cooking and tell me I was bad at it. The woman has no filter. Hm, unless I invited them at the same time, which might be my smartest move. Adam has a mitigating effect on Claire, and I wouldn’t want her to miss out on Adam trying peanut butter chocolate ice cream cake for the first time.

Jess : Please describe your Maelstrom Chronicles in one to five sentences.

Jody : When black and red devils invade Terra (our earth), its citizens are shocked when beings who claim to be “angels” show up to aid them in their time of need. Many believe—and many do not. Turns out the ones who didn’t believe had the right of it, as the angels are actually technologically advanced aliens who try to save planets from otherdimensional entities without spoiling those planets’ unique cultural systems. The Maelstrom Chronicles are the stories of how the Shipborn aliens and Terran humans navigate the war with the entities once the apocalypse has begun and the truth is revealed.

Jess : Is there any differences and/or similarities between Adam from your "Prodigal" and Nikolas (Niko) from your "Traitor?"

Jody : Adam and Niko are both guys. They’re both heterosexual, as far as I know. Both willing to die for the people they love. The resemblance ends there.

Niko’s a highly trained warrior who had a lot of issues with his father and his upbringing and has taken his father’s place as the general of Ship. He’s careful, serious, and somewhat cynical. His past drives him to create a better future for everyone on Terra and everyone aboard Ship 1001, even though he has to go against the Shipborn’s laws to do it.

Adam, on the other hand, has complete amnesia about his life before "PRODIGAL." He’s eager to learn about the world he’s forgotten, helpful, good-humored (Niko’s a grouch), brave, and more than a little reckless. He doesn’t think things completely through before acting on them, because he doesn’t want to miss out. He’s not the opposite of Niko, but the important thing is he’s a good match for Claire, the heroine of "PRODIGAL." He brings passion and optimism into her life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Jess : Out of all of the secondary characters within your Maelstrom Chronicles, do you have one or two favorites so far? If so, who are they and can you tell us why?

Jody : I’m really pleased readers have responded so positively to Ship, who’s probably my favorite secondary character in the Maelstrom Chronicles. Ship is the AI who runs the giant spacecraft used by the “good” aliens. In this universe, Ships evolve into sentience at a certain point in their life cycle, at which time they are “born” and get to choose their role in the Shipborn fleet. Ship 1001, who’s about 100 years old, is a mother hen, a smart ass, a worry wart, a matchmaker, an adventure seeker, and a psychologist all rolled up into one giant, blue glowing matrix. I really enjoyed imagining a nearly-omniscient being who didn’t have an organic body. How would that influence that being’s personality and development, its hopes and dreams? How would it maintain relationships with organics? What would it do for fun?

I’m also really fond of Claire’s sister Tracy Lawson, who was a pediatrician before the apocalypse and is now one of the foremost Terran experts in Shipborn medical techniques. She’s stealthy, clever, and an excellent actress when she needs to be. She uses crutches due to a medical condition, which she has converted into weapons, of course. People stupidly underestimate her all the time. She is one of the few characters who doesn’t take any crap from her sister, and she has a weakness for beauty products and little luxuries. In "TRAITOR" there were hints she had a fling with a Shipborn pilot—but was it for real or was it for some other purpose? Tracy is multilayered, highly intelligent, and very independent. If I ever write a book about her, I know she’ll make a fantastic protagonist.

Jess : Do you have any other projects in the works? If so, can you share a little of your current work with us?

Jody : Unfortunately I don’t have anything in any condition to share! I’m very shy with my work until it’s polished.



"Prodigal"
[Maelstrom Chronicles, Book 3] by Jody Wallace

Author's Book Description :
    He nearly destroyed the world, but with her help, he can save it.

    Adam Alsing—at least that’s what they tell him his name is—has no idea who he is or why he’s huddled naked in the snow next to a mysterious silver pod. When a gorgeous, no-nonsense sheriff by the name of Claire Lawson rescues him, she explains the planet’s under attack—and he’s been missing for over two years. The problem is, what he doesn’t remember can kill them.

    Keeping the peace in her post-apocalyptic town is all the trouble Sheriff Claire Lawson can handle. Until the MIA Chosen One—the guy who could have prevented the apocalypse—interrupts her supply run. The Shipborn aliens want to study him, and what’s left of the Terran government wants to lock him up. But his charming demeanor and his desire to help, along with his sexy smile, has Claire fighting her better judgment to keep Adam around. For now.

This book is available to order on :

Amazon (e-Book) USD | Amazon (Paperback) USD | Barnes & Noble (NOOK Book) USD | Barnes & Noble (Paperback) USD | Shop Your Local Bookstores (IndieBound - Paperback) USD | Kobo (e-Book) USD

** Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads & LibraryThing! **




About the Author :

Jody Wallace grew up in the South in a very rural area. She went to school a long time and ended up with a Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Her resume includes college English instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and all around pain in the butt. She resides in Tennessee with one husband, two children, one Grandma, six cats, and a lot of junk.

My Previous Review(s) for this Author : Pack and Coven

My Previous Mention(s) of this Author's Books/Characters : Entangled Otherworld Fortune Teller Booth at Entangled Publishing's Summer Carnival | Blog Tour, Guest Post, Spreading the Word & GC Giveaway




Book Excerpt/Teaser(s) :

-- Chapter One --
Claire flipped down the visor of the Humvee when the late afternoon sun nearly blinded her, reflecting off the white of the latest snowfall. She and two other loads of able bodies out of Camp Chanute were returning from a hardware- and tech-foraging mission to the mostly deserted city of Bloomington, Illinois. The long, straight roads, free of debris and stalled cars, didn’t lend themselves to ambushes—humans or monsters. Detritus littered the highways to the north, thicker as the roads approached Chicago.
She didn’t make foraging trips toward Chicago if it could be helped.
But the visor didn’t cancel out the glare. She blinked and squinted. Her eyesight had been enhanced by her Shipborn associates, enough to ascertain the flash of light wasn’t reflecting off the snow. For that kind of glint, it had to be a metallic object.
An object that hadn’t been there when they’d driven this road this morning. She knew this highway well, and that huge field had dead corn in it. Nothing else.
“Slow down,” she told the driver. “You see that?”
Will shook his head. “I just see snow. Snow and old, dead corn. Maybe it’s one of the Children of the Corn.”
“Shut up.” Not visible to the human eye, then. Claire flicked on the radio to talk to the supply truck. Dixie had the best binoculars. “Dix, what do you make on the right side of the road? Far midfield.”
Static crackled through the speaker before Dixie’s response. “I don’t see any…wait. Huh. There’s a big silver thingamabob, but sugar, I don’t know what it is. Weather blimp or something? Could be Shipborn.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Will, get us closer.”
Will stepped on the accelerator, increasing speed until the object came into focus—sleek and silver, possibly some kind of vessel. No landing marks around it, but no snow built up on it, either. Didn’t look like Ship 1001 or its shuttles, which tended to be roughly triangular. More like a giant pill, so brightly silver it was almost white. Hard to see against the patchy snow. Was that a window? A door?
The sun emerged from behind a cloud and sparkled on the metal again, obscuring the details.
“I’m going to check it out. Hold position,” she advised Dixie before directing Will off road.
When the Humvee thumped through the corn stubble that rose above the snow, she pressed a hand against the ceiling to keep from bouncing into it. A gentle rise ahead took them out of sight of the object.
“Be careful,” Dixie chided over the radio. “Last time you went to check something out, that group of survivalist dregs from Chicago ambushed you.”
Soul-sucking black shades and vicious flying red daemons, the most common varieties of the interdimensional entities currently attempting to destroy their planet, weren’t the only dangers on post-apocalypse Earth. The Shipborn had helped quell the worst of the human-against-human atrocities, but their code wouldn’t allow them to lord over the planet the way Claire sometimes wished she could.
Her fellow Terrans could be a bunch of fucking idiots when they half tried. The planet was in shambles after the entity invasion that had begun in California over two years ago, making it increasingly impossible for the natives to police the masses and maintain any semblance of justice. That was why she and her team had set up a civilian settlement in Illinois instead of seeking the dubious safety of the Eastern states in the so-called safe zone.
Claire shoved her coat sleeve off the blaster band around her wrist and opened the window. “Come on, Dix. Bygones. Respect the badge.”
“Sure, Sheriff.” She could practically see the other woman’s dimples. “But I’m still telling Tracy and Mayor Newcome on you for not calling this in first.”
“If I reported it,” Claire answered reasonably, “I’d just browbeat everyone into agreeing that I should check out…whatever it is. This saves time.”
Both men in the Humvee with her chuckled. Claire might run Camp Chanute with military precision, but she didn’t insist on mealy-mouthed respect from her people.
She sure as hell didn’t give any mealy-mouthed respect to anybody, so it would be hypocritical of her to demand it. She was a stubborn asshole according to her sister, and a foul-mouthed sourpuss according to Dixie, but she wasn’t hypocritical.
They crested the rise almost on top of the silver object. About forty feet long, and narrow, with rounded ends. Couldn’t tell heads or tails on it. This close she didn’t see any doors or windows. The whole thing looked like a single piece of metal—no joints.
“What the hell is it?” Will said. “Some kind of rocket?”
“I don’t know.” Tactanium, the non-Terran metal favored by the Shipborn, was pale silver like this thing, but not as glossy. The surface of the object was practically mirrored, and the bullet shape was completely unfamiliar. “Shit. Guess I need to check it out with a sensor array.”
“You should have worn it in the first place.”
“I hate the way it feels.”
“I’ll wear it,” he offered. “I like talking to Ship.”
“Nah, I got this.” The creepy little piece of advanced tech gave Ship 1001, the nosy sentient AI spacecraft that the Shipborn called home, access to her brain, and that didn’t always mesh with her plans.
Will brought the Humvee to a stop a decent distance from the object. Claire and her deputies—really, most Terrans in general—relied on native tech for communications, transportation, and daily activities. Though she was favored by the Shipborn, having given birth to the current general’s daughter a year and a half ago, Shipborn tech wasn’t infinite. The Shipborn were cut off from their people now and trapped in the Terran system with limited supplies. That was what happened when you violated your society’s laws just to save some measly primitive planet.
With a grimace, Claire plucked the translucent jumble of wires from an inside coat pocket and flipped down the visor mirror. Aligning the endo-organic end with the neural implant in her temple, she allowed it to squiggle beneath her dark skin. It sank into place inaudibly, but she felt the vibration of it in her skull. She nestled the rest of the wire around her short, tightly curled black hair like a crown.
The crown that made her the Queen of Assholes, but hey, she got shit done.
She focused the array’s nano-computer on the object, activating the scanning feature.
It didn’t register. At all. No power source, no metal, no nothing. It was as if the object wasn’t there.
“That is not good,” she said to her men. “Sensor’s not picking it up.”
“A mirage?” Will suggested, staring through the windshield. “Light rays could refract off the snow.”
“That is one solid-ass mirage.” Claire swung open the door of the Humvee, and the other two did the same. She hadn’t needed to give the order to free their tactanium blaster bands from their parka sleeves.
A warning pinged on the sensor as the scan completed, presenting her with some information that was almost as worrisome as a vessel her sensor array couldn’t detect. “Folks, I’m picking up signs of entity activity. Past few hours.”
“Shouldn’t be any shades here.” Will scruffed a hand over his chin. “Do you think this is one of those invisible shade hits?”
“We’ll look for bodies,” Claire said grimly. A whiff of rotten garbage reached her, confirming what her sensor had already warned her about the shades.
In the past six months, there had been a huge uptick of human bodies drained of life by shades in areas where no shades had been reported by Shipborn or Terran inspections. That shouldn’t be the case in the buffer zone. Daemon attacks, sure—those bastards could fly anywhere. But shade hordes crept along at barely a mile an hour on a good day, and remained in contact with larger bodies of shades. The primary shade hordes were tracked by both Terran military on the planet and the Shipborn from space, and there were no hordes close to Illinois.
It was a mystery. Camp Chanute and other settlements had lost people—good people. Scouts, foragers, farmers. No scans, no searches, and no flyovers had been able to locate the shades responsible. It couldn’t be daemons or really perverse humans depositing the bodies from elsewhere, because the surroundings always evidenced molecular shade residue. Had to be shades, leaving traces on that spot, doing the killing.
It was like the entities were picking off stragglers, people who ventured too far away from protected compounds. The problem was, once they ate all the loners, they’d go for the towns.
“Will, warn Dix about the shade traces. Tell her she and the supply truck should head back to Chanute and raise a level two alert.” The laser rifle Jeep would be enough cover. Once they were inside the walls of Chanute, they’d be better equipped to deal with attacks from entities or more mundane raiders.
The other deputy in the Humvee, Randall Barber, craned his neck, checking the sky for daemons. Will didn’t immediately obey. “Mayor Newcome won’t like you raising an alert without consulting her.”
“Don’t care.” Claire scanned the skies, too, her enhanced eyes picking up nothing unusual. Clouds, birds, incipient snow—that was all. “My job is security. Her job is paperwork. Your job is to do what I say. Now go.”
Will jogged back to the Humvee.
“Greetings, Claire.” Ship spoke through the sensor array. “You’re using your array. Do you require assistance?”
“Hold up,” she told Ship, trying not to be irritable. Unlike the Shipborn, who’d used their communications and sensor arrays their whole lives, she always had to adjust to Ship’s voice in her head. “We’re investigating shade traces in a place they shouldn’t be and a possibly alien object of some sort I’ve never seen before. I’m calling it a UO.”
“I will scan the larger area,” Ship volunteered. “You must be protected from danger. You should value yourself more, Claire. You’re a mother.”
Ship wasn’t the kind of sentient machine that waited to be told what to do. It wasn’t the kind that refrained from butting in, either. Or eavesdropping. Or nagging.
“I’m doing exactly what Frances needs her mama to be doing,” she responded. “Protecting our people. This isn’t a high threat situation. The UO is just sitting here. But we do have shade residue.” She sent visuals of the object to Ship, orbiting the planet far above.
“I will run it through my databanks. Do you want me to send aid?”
“Hell, no, don’t send any Shipborn here. We picked up shade traces.” The risk was too great for the Shipborn themselves to venture away from the safe areas of the planet—or the sky—and lately the buffer zone no longer qualified. “We got this.”
“As you wish.” The AI had taken a liking to Claire. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was Frannie’s mom and Niko’s ex, or because Ship was Ship.
She didn’t return the liking, but she tried to hide it. Ship definitely had feelings, and Claire had hurt them more than once. Since Frannie lived on Ship with Niko and his wife Sarah part time, it wouldn’t do to have Ship get pissy with Claire.
Scuffing her feet through the icy snow, Claire kicked around until she found what she wanted. She picked up a small rock and weighed it in her hand. It would do. With careful aim, she lobbed the stone at the silver vessel.
It pinged off the metal with a high-pitched noise like a tuning fork. Claire gritted her teeth as the sound scraped across her nerves.
“Well, that’s unusual,” Randall observed laconically.
The noise swelled instead of faded. Soon it became so intense that she and Randall were stuffing their fingers in their ears.
“To hell with this.” She raised her blaster band and let it heat up to a good level. The UO’s whine sang in her eardrum like the teakettle from Hell. She blasted the object with a white-hot bar of Shipborn’s finest laser weaponry.
The beam pierced the silver tube, and the surface shimmered. Shivered. But it didn’t explode.
It should explode. She liked it when things exploded.
She shut off her laser and protected her ears. This damned silver object definitely counted as a thing that needed to be destroyed.
“Ship, gimme another reading,” she shouted over the din.
“I detect life signs approximately fifty paces in front of you,” Ship responded promptly. Even though the AI was in her head, she could barely hear it over the high-pitched resonance. “I do not detect any human bodies.”
“Recalibrate your sensors on my exact location,” she yelled back. “You’ve got interference or something. Didn’t you see the pictures? There’s a forty by ten foot silver metallic object in the spot where you think you see life signs, and it’s hitting us with some kind of noise weapon.”
They were forty minutes out of Camp Chanute. She didn’t need this kind of mystery so close to her home base.
“The photograph showed a barren field, not an object. A forty by ten foot metallic noise weapon is not a device I have in my databanks.”
Claire reviewed the images. Blank. “Why doesn’t it photograph?”
She wasn’t sure it was a good idea to get any closer if the thing wasn’t showing up on sensors.
Then again, she and her people were the ones on the scene, and it was their duty to investigate.
Finally the deafening chime faded.
“There is a life sign in the location of the object you think you see,” Ship insisted, more urgently. “It is a human life sign. It is fluctuating. The individual may require assistance.”
“I don’t see anybody.” She gestured to Randall, sending him around one side. Could this be the answer to the shade hits in the buffer zone? Were they in time to save today’s victim? “Don’t touch anything.”
Slowly she advanced. Her nose wrinkled involuntarily at the continued whiff of carrion and ozone. Her heart pulsed. “You smell the shades, right?”
Was her sensor broken? Or her senses?
Randall nodded. “Roadkill.”
“There are no current entities in your area,” Ship assured her. “I have a tight focus on your proximity. You are twenty-five feet from the life sign, at a south-south-west diagonal.”
That would take her to one end of the UO. Randall had reached one tip and peeked behind it. Wariness tightened her skin, and the chilly breeze on her cheeks faded to nothing. “Anything back there?”
“Nothin’.” He waved toward the horizon. “Your shot passed through the vessel.”
“If it’s a vessel.” Just because it had an aerodynamic bullet shape didn’t make it a ship. It could be—hell, she didn’t know. A Terran military gadget. A weather balloon. A time capsule. Most likely, though, it was an alien device, and that didn’t bode well. “Ship, are you sure the UO I described isn’t something your people’s enforcers might have? Like a bomb to blow us all up? If they’re supposed to make sure the Shipborn obey the rules, I can see why they’d come after you. You guys sure as hell aren’t sticking to code.”
“As far as I can ascertain, the enforcers have made no move to investigate my crew’s code breaking. The beacons that mark this system as off-limits would have notified the enforcers of our continued violation,” Ship said.
“Why would you know if they were coming after us?” She inched toward the UO, blaster revved and ready. “You talk about the enforcers like they’re so much more advanced than you that you wouldn’t stand a chance against them.”
“I do not know,” Ship answered. “But it has been eighteen months and we are surviving unmolested.”
“Unmolested by your homeland security guys… Wait a minute.”
A crack appeared near one end of the ship, slowly expanding. Behind the crack was a blackness that churned like shades but…
A large, pale human stumbled out of the craft. Naked. He landed on his hands and knees in the corn stubble and snow, gasping for breath.
Blaster hot, she aimed at the figure, but no shades oozed out after him. The crack in the UO remained quiescent. The roiling of the blackness must have been her imagination. Now it just looked dark inside.
“Hold it right there,” Claire demanded unnecessarily. The man didn’t stand up. He didn’t even lift his head. She scanned him with the sensor array, picking up elevated levels of testosterone and adrenaline—he was afraid.
But he wasn’t dead. Was this going to be their first save from one of the mysterious shade hits?
Randall jogged back from the other side of the capsule, instantly on guard against the stranger. He’d been an experienced hunter before the apocalypse, so he was good with guns, but he wasn’t exactly military.
“Are you hurt?” she asked the stranger warily; he wasn’t the only one on edge. “Were you attacked by shades? Can you tell me what this silver craft is and how you got here?”
The man didn’t respond. His shaggy blond hair clumped like it hadn’t been washed in ages. Muscles bunched and twitched in a body that seemed to be well honed, not malnourished.
“I found your life sign,” she told Ship, transmitting the readings via her array. “It’s a naked ass white boy, and I think he’s deaf. Please tell me you’re getting these images, at least.”
“Not deaf,” the man croaked. So he could talk. “Water. Please.”
“I’ve got some in the Humvee.” Her sensors continued their probe, assessing the man’s physical condition. Ship would ID the fellow soon enough, but at least he spoke English. She didn’t have many translators at Chanute besides Ship, and using Ship to translate was a pain in everyone’s ass. Ship…paraphrased a lot. “Can you walk or do you need help?”
“I don’t know.” He rose, shaky and shivering. He stood over six feet, and every inch of him was lean, molded perfection. His cock nested in hair a couple shades darker than the clumps on his head, and not a single blemish marred the surface of his pale skin. In contrast to his impressive physique, he swayed like he was coming off a three-day bender.
Claire found herself rushing forward to support him and barely stopped herself from grabbing his arms. He could have interpreted that as aggressive. She would have decked any stranger who tried to touch her, especially if she was naked.
“Did you fly here? Is this some kind of escape pod?” she asked more politely now that she could be pretty sure he wasn’t about to attack. She’d grown more apt to help people since becoming sheriff. All that responsibility changed a woman. Arguably so did becoming a mother, but it wasn’t until she’d founded Camp Chanute along with the rest of her team that her obligations really sank in. “What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Where’d he come from?” Randall advanced from behind, closing in. If this guy was military, he was bound to react to that.
He didn’t. He didn’t answer their questions, either. He stood there like an ashen pillar of flesh, shivering. His vitals read as stable on her sensor array, but his core temperature was lower than it should be. For obvious reasons.
“Check out the inside of the UO, Randall. Carefully. See if he left his clothes in there.”
Blaster hand aimed in front of him, her less than stealthy deputy tromped through the wide opening of the otherwise nondescript silver object.
She was curious and worried about the UO, but she was more curious about the stranger. Where had he come from? Why was he naked? He didn’t seem shy about his body—and who would be, with a body like his? But he had to be miserable. “You realize it’s below freezing out here, right?” She shrugged out of her coat and thrust it at him. Winter air cut through her protective tactanium vest and fatigues, but she wasn’t the one who was naked and trembling. “Put this on.”
Voice still rough and dry, he answered. “Thank you.”
This close, she could assess him more carefully without getting disrespectful. He was definitely in good shape. His body looked like a fitness photo shoot waiting to happen, minus the oil, but this wasn’t the time and place to ogle. They both held onto the coat a minute—she was a little worried the weight of the parka would pitch him over on his face. “What’s your name?”
At last he raised his head to look at her.
Sea-green eyes in a perfectly chiseled face pierced her like the laser beam had pierced the silver UO. Through and through. She felt that gaze in her brain, her gut, and her knees. It zinged with energy. Heat flushed her skin but then dribbled away as recognition struck her.
She knew that face.
Everybody on the planet knew that face.
“I don’t know how I got here,” he said. “I don’t know what my name is.”
Claire swallowed the hard knot of anger that had risen at the very sight of him.
“I know what it is.” She released the coat and took a hasty step away from this man, this man who everyone knew was dead. “Your name is Adam Alsing, and you’re a fucking idiot.”

He was so easy on the eyes he was practically pornographic. ~ within Chapter 6

“I’ll come with you,” he said, which was her preferred answer, so she smiled at him.
He grinned back.
Her stomach got a butterfly when their gazes connected. Just one. She didn’t have time for a whole gutful of the distracting little bastards. “I was hoping you’d say that.” ~ within Chapter 11



Giveaway(s)!! :

ALSO -- Check out Nina Croft's pet pig Piggles and Jody Wallace's pet cat Meankitty in their two part interview posted on the Entangled in Romance blog that goes along with this giveaway below ...

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Soo .... TWEET about this post & COMMENT on this post!! And you could WIN!! =0)



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This was put together by myself (From Me to You ... Video, Photography & Book Reviews) please contact me if you'd like your own promo post, while the tour is through Entangled Publishing and they supplied some of the info.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Blog Tour - The Boyfriend Bet by Chris Cannon | Interview, Spreading the Word, & GC Giveaway (INT)

Today I'm showing off Chris Cannon's "The Boyfriend Bet," which is her recently released novel, the SECOND novel in her Boyfriend Chronicles, and the novel I recently interviewed her about!

ALSO -- Be sure to check out Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post to be able to sign up for this blog stop's GIVEAWAY(s)!! [Blog Tour will run from August 22 - 26, 2016 & Giveaway will run until September 1, 2016]



My Q&A with Chris Cannon :

Jess : Which of your characters would you most & least like to invite to dinner, from which book and why?

Chris : I’d love to invite Delia, from "The Boyfriend Bet," to dinner. She’s super creative and artistic. She likes to buy clothes, take them apart and combine them in different ways. I’d invite her to dinner in the hopes that she’d volunteer to design a new wardrobe for me.

I’d least like to have dinner with Lena, Grant’s ex-girlfriend in "The Boyfriend Bet." She’s snotty and annoying and manipulative which makes for a great character but not a good dinner date.

Jess : Which usually comes first for you, the character(s) story or the idea for the novel?

Chris : I always start with the characters and a scene. For "The Boyfriend Bet," I knew I wanted to write a book about a girl who kissed her brother’s nemesis out of spite and then ended up dating him. I knew Zoe would be the type of no-fear girl who’d go up to a guy and say, “Do you have a girlfriend who’d mind if you kissed me to piss off my brother?”

Jess : Please describe "The Boyfriend Bet" in 75 words or less.

Chris : When Zoe Cain’s brother tells her she isn’t allowed to speak to his nemesis, Grant Evertide, she kisses the rich boy out of spite. This leads to several more kisses and multiple after school detentions. Grant has no interest in dating just one girl, but he can’t seem to stop kissing Zoe.
Is Grant interested in Zoe or is he just using her to win a bet?

Jess : Is there any differences and/or similarities between Zoe from "The Boyfriend Bet" and Haley from the "Blackmail Boyfriend?"

Chris : Both stories have older brothers who dislike the guy their sister is dating and they both address class differences and cliques and the idea that you don’t have to be the same to belong together. And they both contain a lot of snarky humor because I love to make people laugh.

Jess : What is the most ironic or silly thing one of your characters, from Boyfriend Chronicles, said or did?

Chris : Zoe threatens to neuter Grant with hedge clippers if he’s lying to her about participating in a stupid bet.

Jess : Do you have any other projects in the works? If so, can you share a little of your current work with us?

Chris : I’m working on the fourth book in my shape-shifting dragon series called "Fanning the Flames." Here’s the first scene...
    Bryn sat waiting outside the Directorate’s offices on the top floor of the library at the Institute for Excellence, aka, shape-shifting dragon school, on what had to be the worlds most uncomfortable couch. The black leather antique looked like it would be comfortable, but the seat was angled back and the cushions jutted forward throwing her off balance. Given the Directorate’s controlling nature they probably had the couch custom made for this very purpose. Asshats. She worked at keeping her temper and her fire under control.

    Valmont, her knight, sat next to her shifting around and frowning. “There is something fundamentally wrong with this piece of furniture. I feel like it’s mocking me.”

    Jaxon huffed out a breath. “It’s meant to make you uncomfortable in order to give whoever is waiting to interview you the upper hand. The longer they make you wait out here, the more uncomfortable you become and the less likely you are to have all your faculties about you when they finally agree to see you.”

    Suspicion confirmed. “Asshats,” Bryn muttered.

    Jaxon snorted but didn’t respond. He paced back and forth in the ten foot waiting room they’d been stuck in for the last thirty minutes. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

    Bryn reached out and grabbed his forearm. “Could you stop pacing? You’re just making the situation worse.”

    Frost shot from his nostrils. “I can either pace, or I can rip someone’s head off. Which would you prefer?”

    “Can we choose whose head you rip off?” Valmont asked, “Because that might affect our preference.”

    The door to the office popped open. A Directorate member Bryn didn’t know gave a smug smile. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

    Right.



"The Boyfriend Bet"
[Boyfriend Chronicles, Book 2] by Chris Cannon

Author's Book Description :
    Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains multiple PDAs, after-school detentions, and gambling on the side. Warning: betting on a boyfriend is bad for your health.

    Zoe Cain knows that Grant Evertide is way out of her league. So naturally, she kisses him. Out of spite. Not only is Grant her brother's number-one nemesis, but he has zero interest in being tied down to one girl. She's shocked-and secretly thrilled-when they start spending more time together.

    Zoe's brother claims Grant is trying to make her his "Ringer," an oh-so-charming tradition where a popular guy dates a non-popular girl until he hooks up with her, then dumps her.Zoe threatens to neuter Grant with hedge clippers if he's lying but Grant swears he isn't trying to trick her. Still, that doesn't mean Grant is the commitment type-even if winning a bet is on the line.

This book is available to order on :

Amazon (e-Book) USD | Amazon (Paperback) USD | Barnes & Noble (NOOK Book) USD | Barnes & Noble (Paperback) USD | Shop Your Local Bookstores (IndieBound - Paperback) USD | Kobo (e-Book) USD

** Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads & LibraryThing! **




About the Author :

Award winning author Chris Cannon lives in Southern Illinois with her husband and her three dogs, Pete the shitzu who sleeps on her desk while she writes, Molly the ever-shedding yellow lab, and Tyson the sandwich-stealing German Shepherd Beagle. She believes coffee is the Elixir of Life. Most evenings after work, you can find her sucking down caffeine and writing fire-breathing paranormal adventures or romantic comedies.

My Previous Review(s) for this Author : Going Down In Flames | Bridges Burned

My Previous Mention(s) of this Author's Books/Characters : Spreading the Word for Entangled Teen with 2 Novels by Karri Thompson & Chris Cannon | Blog Tour - Bridges Burned by Chris Cannon | Spreading the Word | Best Book Couples -- Happy Valentine's Day 2015



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Find Chris Cannon :


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