June 13, 2016

Spotlight, Review & Excerpt: FAN THE FLAMES (Search and Rescue Series) by Katie Ruggle

FAN THE FLAMES (Search and Rescue Series) by Katie Ruggle

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense

In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder…

As a Motorcycle Club member and firefighter, Ian Walsh is used to riding the line between the good guys and the bad. He may owe the Club his life, but his heart rests with his fire station brothers…and with the girl he’s loved since they were kids, Rory Sorenson. Ian would do anything for Rory. He’d die for her. Kill for her. Defend her to his last breath—and he may just have to.

Every con in the Rockies knows Rory is the go-to girl for less-than-legal firearms, and for the past few years, she’s managed to keep the peace between dangerous factions by remaining strictly neutral. But when she defends herself against a brutal attack, Rory finds herself catapulted into the center of a Motorcycle Club war—with only Ian standing between her and a threat greater than either of them could have imagined.

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This is another fun edition to the Search and Rescue series. I wondered what Ian’s story would be like and I wasn’t disappointed. The hot sexy biker revealed a softer side that I found very appealing as his relationship with Rory developed. As for Rory, although I could not relate to her, I liked her and enjoyed reading her journey. It helped that they were surrounded by the Search and Rescue team and their fun camaraderie. There was also plenty of pulse-pounding action that seemed to come from every direction, yet blended to make a cohesive story. All this blended to make a fun, action packed story that I just could not put down. I loved it.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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If Zup didn’t decide on the rifle within the next two minutes, Rory was going to shoot him.
Unfortunately, because he was the son of the local motorcycle club’s president, killing him—or even just putting a hole where no hole had been before—would pretty much guarantee severe consequences. Since Rory was moderately content with her life at the moment, she’d rather not have it end abruptly. Drawing a long breath in through her nose and praying for patience, she employed her subpar salesmanship skills.
“What’s the problem?”
Zup looked up from his scowling appraisal of the SUB 2000. “Maze said he had a Kel-Tec, and it jammed all the time.”
“Tell Maze to quit using crap ammo.” He just frowned at her. With another deep breath, she tried again. “These rifles are built to use common pistol magazines.”
“I know.” He held the rifle to his shoulder again. “That’s why I want one. That, and it can fold in half, so it’d be small enough to carry around in a laptop case.”
“Well, the recoil spring and bolt are heavier than in a pistol.” With a great effort, she kept most of the condescension out of her voice. Rory hated having to explain things to people, especially guys like Zup, who just ignored her anyway. This was why she hadn’t become a teacher. Well, that, and she’d most likely fail the background check—and probably the psych exam. “If you use poor quality rounds, you’re going to get some failures.”
Zup’s frown turned from the rifle to her. “Maze loads all our ammo. Are you telling me he’s fucking it up?”
“What I’m saying,” she gritted through clenched teeth, “is that if you run good ammo through this rifle, it’s going to be reliable.”
After eyeing her suspiciously for a few seconds, he grunted and brought the stock to his shoulder again. He shifted his position several times as he peered through the sights, and then complained, “This steel pipe sucks as a cheek rest.”
“That’s it.” She jumped off the counter where she’d been sitting and held out her hands. “Give it to me.”
Instead, he turned away from her while tucking the rifle close to his chest. “Hang on,” he told her. “I’m still deciding.”
“No, I’ve decided for you.” Rory flicked her fingers in a “gimme” gesture. There was a beep indicating someone had just come through the front door of her shop, and the last of her patience disappeared. “If you can’t appreciate an accurate, dependable, untraceable Kel-Tec SUB 2000 because it’s not comfy enough, then you don’t deserve it. Hand it over.”
Reluctantly, he relinquished the rifle. “I do want it. How much?”
“Nope. Too late.” She pulled down on the trigger guard and swung the barrel assembly up and over the receiver, marveling at the ingenuity it took to completely redesign a rifle so it could fold in half. As she gently placed it into its case, she couldn’t refrain from stroking her fingers over the gun’s practical shape. It wasn’t the most attractive of rifles, but it did its job. She’d take functional over pretty any day.
Zup watched the gun disappear. Although it was hard to tell under his bushy beard, she was pretty sure he was pouting. “Ro-ry…”
“What are you whining about now, Zup?” a low voice asked.
It took all her willpower not to look. If she glanced at Ian Walsh in all his dark, muscle-bound glory, she’d start stammering and blushing. Every time he walked into her store, his melty brown eyes focused on her, black hair mussed by his fireman’s helmet or a motorcycle ride, those full, beautiful lips curving into a friendly smile, she marveled that this incredible person was in her life. They were just friends, of course, but she told herself that it was enough—more than she could expect, really. With his model-perfect features and body, he looked as if he should be attending photo shoots, not leaning on the wall behind the counter, chatting with plain, weird Rory Sorenson.
Plain, weird Rory Sorenson, who right now couldn’t even look at him.
After that first breath-stealing moment when she first saw him, she could usually turn on casual-and-friendly mode, but not after the dream she’d had the night before—a dream that had featured her, Ian, his bike, and not many clothes. Her cheeks flamed at the memory. Keeping her gaze focused downward, she latched the case with more care than was required.

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Search and Rescue Series
On His Watch (novella) ➢ http://amzn.to/1n61qck
Hold Your Breath ➢ Review 5 Stars http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-4Am | http://amzn.to/1P4yEFa
Fan the Flames ➢ http://amzn.to/1SH25hR
Gone too Deep ➢ http://amzn.to/1LiJlm3
In Safe Hands

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PREQUEL NOVELLA IS FREE

✦FREE ➢ On His Watch: Search and Rescue (Novella) by Katie Ruggle
Kindle http://amzn.to/1n61qck
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When she’s not writing, Katie Ruggle rides horses, shoots guns, and travels to warm places where she can SCUBA dive. Graduating from the Police Academy, Katie received her ice-rescue certification and can attest that the reservoirs in the Colorado mountains really are that cold. While she still misses her off-grid, solar- and wind-powered house in the Rocky Mountains, she now lives in Rochester, Minnesota near her family. Katie Ruggle: http://katieruggle.com/

June 10, 2016

Review: TO LOVE A WOLF (SWAT, #4) by Paige Tyler

TO LOVE A WOLF (SWAT, #4) by Paige Tyler

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

Genre: Paranormal Romance

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?

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Donna 5 Stars

I connected immediately with both Cooper and Everly. Their relationship was fun to watch and even though it developed quickly, it never seemed too quick. I liked that. The story swirling around them was full of danger, intrigue and mystery. Throw in family stuff and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The hot romance only added to my enjoyment. I loved it.

*Review copy provided NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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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.

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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!

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Kindle: http://amzn.to/1WAS4o9
Apple: http://apple.co/1RxW32j
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B&N: http://bit.ly/24E7vv9
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1PNcgkn

Amazon Series Link: SWAT (4 Book Series) http://amzn.to/1tf4Ls4

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Paige is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy romantic suspense and paranormal romance. She graduated from The University of West Florida with a degree in education in 2000, but decided to pursue a full-time career as a writer in 2004. Since then, she’s written over fifty books in several genres, including paranormal, contemporary, western, sci-fi and erotica. She loves writing about strong, sexy, alpha males and the feisty, independent women who fall for them. From verbal foreplay to sexual heat, her stories of romance, adventure, suspense, passion and true love will leave you breathlessly panting for more.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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June 9, 2016

Blog Tour, Excerpt & Giveaway: INTO THE WHIRLWIND (B.O.S.S., Inc. #2) by Kat Martin

INTO THE WHIRLWIND (B.O.S.S., Inc. #2) by Kat Martin

Publication Date: May 31, 2016

Synopsis

A bodyguard, a bounty hunter, a private investigator, no one can handle the heat like the men of BOSS, Inc.

Megan O’Brien is at her wit’s end. Her three-year-old son has been kidnapped. No police, says the ransom demand. Fearing for her son’s life, Meg has no choice but to turn to her former bodyguard, Dirk Reynolds.

Dirk’s never forgiven Meg for the way she left him after their brief affair. But with bounty hunter Luke Brodie on his side, Dirk knows he’s got to help Meg rescue her son.

The few clues they’ve gathered send them spiraling into a murky world of big banking and international crime. Meg may be way out of her depths, but she’s seeing a side of Dirk she never suspected—one no woman could possibly resist.

Link to Follow Tour

Goodreads Link

Goodreads Series Link

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Excerpt

“Ms. Megan, thank God you’re home! It’s . . . it’s Charlie. I can’t find little Charlie.”
Meg’s heart took a leap as she stepped into the house, nearly colliding with her housekeeper, Rose Wills.
“He probably woke up and wandered off somewhere. He has to be here someplace.” But even as she said the words, worry jolted through her. Telling herself not to panic, Meg hurried toward the stairs.
“I put him down for a nap an hour ago,” Rose said, hurrying along behind her. “When I went back to check on him, he was gone.”
“You know how he likes to hide. He’s just found a new place.” But fear had her pulse kicking up, and her stomach started to churn. At the top of the landing, she turned and ran down the hall to her three-year-old’s bedroom, the housekeeper close behind her.
Charlie wasn’t in his small white youth bed. “Charlie! Mama’s home. Charlie! Where are you, sweetheart?” Meg ran to the closet and pulled open the door, searched through the stuffed toys and games on the closet floor, but found no sign of her son.
Her heart was hammering now, her stomach balled into a fist. Meg told herself to stay calm. There were dozens of places a little boy could hide in a two-story house.
“Charlie! Charlie, where are you, sweetie?”
Rose’s higher-pitched, worried voice chimed in. “Charlie! Come out now. Your mommy wants you.”
They searched upstairs, but he was nowhere to be seen, went downstairs and searched the floor below.
“God, Rose, where could he be? You don’t think he went outside?”
“I always keep the doors locked and the chain on. There’s no way he could have gotten out.”
They checked all the doors, but Rose was right. No way could her little boy have gotten out of the house.
Meg ran back upstairs. She returned to his room, walked over to the bed to see if the covers still held a trace of warmth. Reaching down, she touched the soft blue blanket with the sailboats on it, but none of Charlie’s heat remained.
Instead, she spotted an envelope protruding from the folds, her name in ink on the front.
“What did you find?” Rose came up beside her.
“It’s a letter.” Her hands shook as she tore the envelope open.
“I didn’t see it before,” Rose said. “Oh, dear Lord.” She started to tremble, her breasts heaving as the implication sank in. She was a big woman, nearly as tall as Meg’s five-foot ten-inch frame. “What . . . what does it say?”
Meg read the note and her heart clutched, then turned to stone. “‘We have your son. He’ll cost you ten million in cash. You’ve got three days or he’s . . . he’s dead. No police.’“
Meg swayed on her feet. She gripped the headboard, afraid she might faint. Dear God, my baby! She turned, let Rose pull her into a hug, and her eyes welled with tears. They clung to each other, both of them crying.
The housekeeper straightened away. “We have to call the police. They’ll know what to do. They’ll get Charlie back.”
Meg shook her head. “No police. If we call them, they’ll kill him.”
Rose crossed herself. “What are going to do, Ms. Meg?”
Meg closed her eyes and prayed for strength. Her dad was extremely wealthy. He loved his grandson. Her father could get the ten million dollars they needed to pay the ransom.
But her dad was also extremely controlling. And he believed money was the solution to everything. What if the kidnappers took the money and still killed her baby?
She thought of Charlie’s father, Jonathan Hollander, the man she had married to please her dad. Yes, he was hand-some. She couldn’t deny she’d been attracted to his dark good looks and charming smile. Her father hadn’t been able to see past Jonathan’s impressive Harvard education and his family’s lofty position in society.
Meg thought what a no-good, lying cheat he had turned out to be.
She couldn’t go to Jonathan.
Another man’s image came to mind. Smart. Loyal to a fault. Strong. Tough. Reliable. The one man she would trust with her precious son’s life.
“I know someone.” Strength seeped through her as determination set in. “I know a man who can bring Charlie home.”

Megan O’Brien parked at the end of the gravel driveway and quietly got out of her white BMW X1 compact SUV. Through the trees, she could hear the roar of a chainsaw, hear hammers banging away, see two-by-fours of golden-yellow pine going up to form the sides of the house under construction.
The garage was already finished, undoubtedly full of Dirk’s toys, including a Harley and a custom Dodge Viper. In the summer, he kept a boat docked on the lake below the house.
Though two other men were hard at work, her gaze went straight to Dirk. Hammer in hand, carpenter’s belt dangling low on his waist, he was shirtless, though the January air was chill.
Hard muscle flexed across his back and shoulders as he pounded in a nail with an ease that said how many times he had done it. Long, sinewy muscles outlined by the soft fabric of his jeans stretched and moved as he worked on his house.
Meg’s gaze went over the familiar dragon tattoo that wound over one shoulder and inched up the side of his neck. The colored ink seemed right with the sexy, short-cropped horseshoe mustache that framed his mouth and curved down to his jaw, making him look like the hard, tough man he was.
Even her terrible fear for her son couldn’t block the memories of how it had felt to lie with him. Couldn’t lessen the yearning that burned through her body just at the sight of him.
Meg had met Dirk Reynolds five months before when she had been preparing for the La Belle fashion show tour. Meg, one of their top models, worked for the chain of expensive lingerie stores.
She glanced back at Dirk. He and his friend, Ethan Brodie, did private investigation and personal security for Brodie Operations Security Services, Inc., the company that had been hired to protect the models after one of them was murdered.
Dirk had been her bodyguard, and though every instinct had warned her not to get involved with him, the fierce attraction between them had been impossible to resist.
Once the models returned home, Meg had ended the affair. She and Dirk weren’t right for each other. Dirk lived fast and hard. He rode a motorcycle, drove a car that could go two hundred miles an hour. Dirk Reynolds was wild and fierce, while she was a single mother with a son to raise.
She couldn’t have Dirk Reynolds. She had a responsibility to her little boy. With a failed marriage behind her, she couldn’t risk failing again.
But she had never gotten over Dirk.
Meg steeled herself and headed along the gravel driveway toward the house Dirk was rebuilding after the fire that had nearly killed him five months ago. One thing she knew, Dirk Reynolds was a hard man to kill.
Which was the reason she had swallowed her pride and her heartache and come to him. She needed him, trusted him as she never had any other man. Her little boy’s life de-pended on gaining this man’s help. This man she had loved and rejected.
She stepped out of the foliage-covered driveway into the open area around the house he was rebuilding. She had called his office looking for him. Nick Brodie, one of the other PIs at BOSS Inc., had reluctantly told her where to find him. Maybe it was the tears he heard in her voice when she had said how important it was. That it was a matter of life or death.
With Dirk’s usual keen senses, he turned, alert that some-one was there, though the buzz of the saw had hid the sound of her footsteps.
For several long moments, he just stared, watching as she walked toward him. He was six-two, his body lean and sculpted. Wavy dark brown hair curled at the nape of his neck. She forced herself to keep walking, even as his jaw locked and a fierce scowl darkened his face.
Dirk grabbed a faded blue work shirt and shrugged it on, covering most of his amazing chest. He didn’t bother fastening the buttons, just strode toward her, blocking her view of the house.
He stopped right in front of her. “What are doing here, Meg?”
“I need to talk to you. It’s . . . it’s urgent.”
“You’re trespassing. What do you want?”
She swallowed, fought to stay strong. He didn’t want her there. She had known he wouldn’t. Known he thought of her only with contempt. She wished he would hold her the way he used to when she was afraid. “I . . . I want to hire you.”
The corner of his mouth edged into a ruthless half smile. “What for? Stud service?”
She wanted to cry. She wanted to beg his forgiveness. Tell him she had never forgotten him. That she never would. She knew it wouldn’t matter to Dirk. Not anymore.
All that mattered now was saving her son.
She looked into those hard hazel eyes and for the first time wondered if she’d been wrong to think he would help her. Dear God, what would she do if Dirk refused?
A sob wedged in her throat. She fought desperately to hold on to her courage. “It’s Charlie. He’s been kidnapped. They left a note. It says they’ll . . . they’ll kill him if I go to the police.”
Something shifted in those hard, condemning eyes. For a moment, the old Dirk appeared. Concerned for her, determined to protect her at any cost, even his life.
“I’ll take you down to the office. Ethan’s out of town with Val. I’ll get Nick to work with you. Or Luke. They’ll help you find your boy. They’ll help you get him back.”
They were all private investigators and they were the best. But they weren’t Dirk Reynolds. Meg started shaking her head, couldn’t stop the tears that leaked onto her cheeks. “It has to be you. I know in my heart you can save Charlie. Only you.”
His jaw went iron hard. “Jesus, Meg.”
“Please, Dirk. Please help me.”
“Do you know what you’re asking?”
She knew. There was a time he had loved her. He had begged her to stay with him, give them a chance. Meg had refused.
“He’s just a little boy. I know you can save him. You won’t give up until you do.”
“Jesus.” He raked a hand through his heavy dark hair. She remembered the exact silky feel of the strands between her fingers.
“The note says they want ten million dollars,” she said. “They’ll kill him if they don’t get it.”
He took a deep breath, released it slowly. “How much time did they give you?”
“Three days.”
“Ten million. That’s a helluva lot of money.”
“My father can get it.”
His gaze remained on her face. “But you don’t trust him to get your boy back. That’s smart, Meg, because money doesn’t always work.”
She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “Will you help me?”
His eyes went dark. “You knew I would when you came here.”
“I prayed you would. I wasn’t sure anymore.”
He gazed over her shoulder through the trees, spotted her small white SUV. “You okay to drive?”
“I’m all right.”
“I’ll follow you back to your house.” His mouth barely curved. “I think I can remember where it is.”
Meg turned away from him. Three days. In three days Charlie would be safely returned. Dirk would go on with his life and she would go on with hers.
Three days.
The pain didn’t matter. Charlie was all that mattered. Meg had no other choice.

~*~*~*~

Buy Links

Amazon | B& N | Google | iTunes | Kobo

~*~*~*~

Giveaway

(Three Print Copies of INTO THE WHIRLWIND)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

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May 17, 2016

Spotlight & Review: BIG EASY TEMPTATION: The Perfect Gentlemen Series by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake

BIG EASY TEMPTATION: The Perfect Gentlemen Series by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake

Publication Date: May 3, 2016

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense

The New York Times bestselling authors of the Masters of Ménage series present the third scintillating novel featuring the privileged, wealthy, wild men of Creighton Academy—the Perfect Gentlemen.

Years ago, Naval officer Dax Spencer and NCIS agent Holland Kirk indulged in a steamy affair—until she betrayed him in the wake of his father’s death. Dax tried to put her behind him with a payback of his own. But he never forgot Holland…

Now, as Dax and his fellow Perfect Gentlemen unravel a web of lies, he discovers his family’s tragedy is part of a much larger conspiracy. Soon, all clues point him back to New Orleans…where Holland waits, protecting her deadly secret and holding a torch for the only man she’s ever loved.

Once reunited, they can’t fight the passion flaring hot and wild. But something sinister lurks around every corner, from the elegance of the Garden district to the beauty of the bayou. Dax and Holland may find their way back to each other—if they survive…

~*~*~*~

Cori 5 Stars

Big Easy Temptation is my new series favorite! I loved it! It’s one of those books you end up staying up all night reading because you can’t put it down and that’s exactly what I did. Big Easy Temptation is the third book in Shayla Black and Lexi Blake’s Perfect Gentlemen series and I recommend reading the first two books before picking up this one. While they can be read as standalones each book is about a different gentleman in a group of powerful men that met in boarding school. I love all of Shayla Black and Lexi Blake’s Perfect Gentlemen in this series but Dax *fans face* is the perfect man. He’s ultimate alpha male hero material. Holland Kirk and Dax Spencer’s story is a second chance romance full of hot romance and page turning suspense. I recommend this book for romantic suspense lovers that want a hot love story with the thrills of a great suspense story. I can’t wait to read the rest of the Perfect Gentlemen’s stories. This series is on my favorites list and I can’t wait to see what happens next in the next release.

*Review copy provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review.

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*Graphic from Shayla Black’s page.

Read an Excerpt: http://shaylablack.com/books/big-easy-temptation/excerpt/

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*Graphic from Shayla Black’s page.

Kindle $9.99 http://amzn.to/1moadoU | Amazon PBK $12.96 http://amzn.to/1moahFe

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✦The Perfect Gentlemen Series by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake✦
✦Book 1: SCANDAL NEVER SLEEPS ➢ Review 5 Stars http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-2R4 | Amazon http://amzn.to/1JcuMz4
✦Book 2: SEDUCTION IN SESSION ➢ Review 4.5 Stars http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-3×8 | Amazon http://amzn.to/1Ncv0mp
✦Book 3: BIG EASY TEMPTATION ➢ Amazon http://amzn.to/1moadoU

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ABOUT SHAYLA BLACK

Shayla Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels. For over fifteen years, she’s written contemporary, erotic, paranormal, and historical romances via traditional, independent, foreign, and audio publishers. Her books have sold well over a million copies and been published in a dozen languages.

Raised an only child, Shayla occupied herself with lots of daydreaming, much to the chagrin of her teachers. In college, she found her love for reading and realized that she could have a career publishing the stories spinning in her imagination. Though she graduated with a degree in Marketing/Advertising and embarked on a stint in corporate America to pay the bills, her heart has always been with her characters. She’s thrilled that she’s been living her dream as a full-time author for the past seven years.

Shayla currently lives in North Texas with her wonderfully supportive husband, her teenage daughter, and a very spoiled cat. In her “free” time, she enjoys reality TV, reading, and listening to an eclectic blend of music.

Shayla’s Links: Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

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ABOUT LEXI BLAKE

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.   Her first novel, Their Virgin Captive: Masters of Ménage, Book 1, was a collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Shayla Black. There are six more books available in the series: Their Virgin’s Secret, Their Virgin Concubine, Their Virgin Princess, Their Virgin Hostage, Their Virgin Secretary, and Their Virgin Mistress.   In addition to the Masters of Ménage series, she is the author of the Masters and Mercenaries series. The first nine novels, The Dom Who Loved Me, The Men with the Golden Cuffs, A Dom is Forever, On Her Master’s Secret Service, Love and Let Die, Dungeon Royale, A View to a Thrill, You Only Love Twice, and Master No are available now, along with the novellas Sanctum, Unconditional, Dungeon Games, Cherished, Luscious, Adored, and Just One Taste. The tenth novel, From Sanctum with Love, is coming February 23, 2016, along with a new novella, Devoted, on April 12, 2016.  In 2013, Lexi also began releasing her urban fantasy series, Thieves. The full series, Steal the Light, Steal the Day, Steal the Moon, Steal the Sun, and Steal the Night, are available now on Amazon. The first two books in a spin-off of the series, Ripper and Addict, were released in 2015. Look for Sleeper, the next book in the spin-off series, to be released in Fall of 2016.   Lexi again collaborated with Shayla Black in a new series The Perfect Gentlemen. The first book, Scandal Never Sleeps, is now available. Book two, Seduction in Session, will release on January 5, 2016, followed by book three, Big Easy Temptation, on May 3, 2016.

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May 10, 2016

Review: WAR BRINGER (THE RED TEAM #6) by Elaine Levine

WAR BRINGER (THE RED TEAM #6) by Elaine Levine

Publication Date: April 27, 2016

Romantic Suspense/ Contemporary Romance

The Covert Operative…

Kelan Shiozski wasn’t looking for a girlfriend or a wife or any other sort of female in his life, but he found her hiding in his enemy’s home…and he knew instantly she was his soul mate.

Patience has long been part of his warrior ethos—until it meant waiting for his woman to come of age. Now that time is here, and he’s about to spend three days alone with her, away from his team, away from their mission tracking a homegrown terrorist group operating out of the Rocky Mountains. He has three days to show her, with his heart and his body, what it means to be his other half.

But when she’s kidnapped before their celebratory weekend, Kelan must track her into the dark depths of a hidden crime world, which few ever experience or exit alive.

…And the Innocent

At just twenty-one, Fiona Addison has lived a sheltered life that began unraveling a year earlier when her mom and her friend died in two separate car accidents the same week. The layers are peeling away, revealing who she really is, culminating in a truth she cannot accept.

And now, everything she learns about herself imperils the future she hoped to have with Kelan, a man whose fierce warrior nature will not let her go despite the cost to himself.

They’ll either live together or die together…a fate they cannot let be decided by a madman.

~*~*~*~

Another action packed edition to the Red Team series. I wondered how Kelan’s book would be as he is a bit mystical in his ancestral beliefs, but it gave him a different depth that I ended up liking. My only other comment would be that the antagonist seems to be getting more and more convoluted. Is that a good thing or a bad? Time will tell. That being said, this was a fast paced, action packed ride, sprinkled with steamy romance that compelled me to read it in one sitting. I can’t wait for the next one.

*Review copy purchased via Amazon.

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Kindle http://amzn.to/24IbqJ5
iBooks http://geni.us/135i
B&N http://geni.us/1Bhh
Kobo http://geni.us/1dru

GOODREADS SERIES LINK

AMAZON SERIES LINK

Series Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

1) The Edge of Courage
2) Shattered Valor
3) Honor Unraveled ➢ Review 4.5 Stars
3.5) Kit & Ivy ➢ Review 4 Stars
4) Twisted Mercy ➢ Review 5 Stars
4.5) Ty & Eden ➢ Review 4.5 Stars
5) Assassin’s Promise ➢ Review 4.5 Stars

✦FREE ➢ The Edge of Courage (Red Team, Book 1) By Elaine Levine
Kindle http://amzn.to/1xXmYMc
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ELAINE LEVINE’S BOOK LIST

Elaine Levine lives on the plains of Colorado with her husband, a middle-aged parrot, and a rescued pit bull/bullmastiff mix. In addition to writing the Red Team Contemporary Western series, she is the author of several books in the Historical Western series Men of Defiance.

Join the conversation on Facebook: Visit the Red Team Readers Group – on.fb.me/19M1moR

SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Fan Page | Facebook Profile Page | Facebook Red Team Readers Group | Twitter | Booklist

May 4, 2016

Review: Rival Forces: A K-9 Rescue Novel by D.D. Ayres

Rival Forces: A K-9 Rescue Novel by D.D. Ayres

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense

Publication Date: May 3, 2016

DESIRE IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

When it comes to training K-9 patrol dogs, Yardley Summers always trusts her instincts. But when it comes to dating men, she keeps her heart on a very short leash. Mostly, she’s too busy with her four-legged trainees at Harmonie Kennels to commit to a relationship. Only two men have managed to distract her: a handsome Doctors Without Borders physician who’s suddenly gone missing—and the red-hot dog trainer from her past who’s suddenly back in her life…

Now a K-9 rescue team leader, Kye McGarren has never forgotten the days he trained at Yardley’s camp—or the nights he spent in her arms. When he hears that Yardley is on a mission to find the missing doctor, Kye is determined to keep her out of danger. With his K-9 partner by his side, he joins Yardley on a death-defying mission—one that reignites their mutual passion. Will Kye be able to rescue his romantic rival…without losing the woman he loves?

Rival Forces is the fourth installment of D. D. Ayres’ K-9 Rescue series.

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Donna review 4.5 stars

I have grown to love the K-9 Rescue series and this book is another indication why. The action flows so well into the romance that you don’t feel a break in the momentum. Kye is a hot Hawaiian that is a cross between The Rock and a surfer dude. What a combination! Even though I didn’t warm up to Yardley as much as I did him, she was so realistic in how she dealt with everything swirling around her. In looking back at the story, one would think there was too much going on but it all seemed to work together to make it a fast exciting read. I loved it.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Excerpt

READ AN EXCERPT HERE

~*~*

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

~*~*~*~

K-9 Rescue Series by D.D. Ayres
1. Irresistible Force ➢ Review | Kindle
2. Force of Attraction ➢ Review | Kindle
3. Primal Force ➢ Review | Kindle
4. Rival Forces ➢ Kindle

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A veteran author of romance and women’s fiction, D.D. Ayres is new to Romantic Suspense. She believes the lure of romance is always the human connection. Put that connection in physical jeopardy, and and we learn a bit more about who we really are.

With her K-9 Rescue series, D.D. hopes you will enjoy her sexy, suspenseful portrayals of K-9 teams at their best. D.D. lives in Texas with her husband and a soft-coated Wheaten terrier named Zoe.

Social Media Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

May 2, 2016

Spotlight, Review & Giveaway: LAST MILE (A Vicious Cycle Novel, Book 3) by Katie Ashley

LAST MILE (A Vicious Cycle Novel, Book 3) by Katie Ashley

Publication Date: May 3, 2016

Romantic Suspense/ Contemporary Romance

The thrilling third romance in the Vicious Cycle series from the New York Times bestselling author of Redemption Road.

After her father was murdered in the line of duty, ATF agent Samantha Vargas is determined to take down the scumbags of the drug trade. When her partner takes on a case to infiltrate the Hells Raiders MC, Samantha agrees to go undercover as his old lady, but is surprised to find herself drawn to the very man she is investigating, Benjamin “Bishop” Malloy.

Even though she’s determined to bring down the Raiders, Samantha discovers their world isn’t as black and white as she thought. And as the stakes grow higher, she’s in danger of losing more than her heart.

Story Locale: Georgia

Series Overview: Prepare for a wicked ride with the men of the Hells Raiders motorcycle club and the women who rev their engines…

~*~*~*~

Excerpt

I rose off the picnic bench. As I set my longneck down, I could feel Bishop’s eyes burning into my back. When I glanced at him over my shoulder, his eyebrows rose questioningly. Slowly, I turned around. As I met his blazing baby blues, I held out my hand. His body shuddered slightly before he leaned up to put his hand in mine. I tugged him up off the bench, pulling him close to me.
His warm breath against my cheek, causing me to shiver with building anticipation. “What are you doing, Sam?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I replied, “Getting you to take me somewhere we can be alone.”
He pulled back to look at me. Both longing and regret flickered on his handsome face. “You gotta know that nothing good is gonna come with me being alone with you right now.”
“I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
It was the same question raging through my mind. Did I want to fuck Bishop to get in even deeper with him because of the case or was it because I was starting to feel more for him than I should? In the end, I tuned out the voices in my head. “Yeah, I am,” I responded, my voice resonating with certainty.
With a brief nod, Bishop tugged on my hand and started leading me away from the others. We went around the back of the clubhouse and then passed the pawnshop. As we continued walking, the lights grew dimmer and dimmer until we found ourselves in shadowy darkness. Bishop stopped us in front a tall chain-link fence that ran the length of the property.
After gazing around, I swallowed hard. I’d never had sex out in the open before, and I could feel my once firm resolve slowly fading. “Here?”
“It’s really the only place we can be alone with all the brothers being in from out of town. I gave up my room in the clubhouse.” A lustful gleam burned in Bishop’s eyes as he pulled me against him. I could feel the hardened length of him through his jeans. “But if you want, I’ll put you on the back of my bike and take you anywhere you want to go.”
Deep down, I knew it was right here and right now, or I was going to lose both my nerve and my buzz.I brought my arms up to wrap around his neck. “I just want to be with you.” I drew his head down to where our lips were almost touching. We stayed like that for a few seconds, both of our chests heaving and our bodies trembling. This was our figurative cliff, and we were just inches from free-falling off it. Before we could think any more about it, Bishop crushed his lips against mine.
For such a hardened, tough guy, his lips were so very smooth. They felt as soft as velvet as they moved against mine. I tightened my arms around his neck, drawing him as close to me as I could. My breasts strained against the bulging muscles of his chest.
I couldn’t seem to get close enough to him. I had to fight the urge to jump up and wrap my legs around his waist and grind myself against him. As his warm tongue entered my mouth, I moaned. He proved within seconds he was one hell of a kisser. He was also one for multitasking, because as his tongue caressed mine, his hand palmed my breast through the fabric of my dress. My nipple pebbled under his fingertips, and I gasped when he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger. While one hand continued to knead my breast, the other dipped below the hem of my dress. I sucked in a breath when it skimmed against my thigh before journeying farther upward. It had been too damn long since a man had touched me, and as Bishop’s hand cupped me, my head fell back, banging against the fence.
“Fucking hell. You’re drenched,” Bishop said in a ragged voice.
“I know,” I groaned. Gazing up at him, I said, “Please, don’t stop touching me.”
“Hmm, I like the sound of you begging.” His fingers began to work me over my panties, but I wanted more. I wantonly kicked my legs apart, spreading them as far as I could for him. Bishop read my mind by jerking my panties to the side and thrusting two fingers deep inside me.
“Oh yes!” I cried, moving my hips against his hand. At that point, I didn’t give two shits if anyone at the party could see or hear us. I just wanted to come.

~*~*~*~

3.5 stars Donna

I have enjoyed the Vicious Cycle series but I have to admit that this one seemed a little rushed. The storyline was riveting however, and I couldn’t wait to see how things turned out with all the twists and turns. Bishop was someone that I warmed to immediately in more ways than one, and I was glad that Samantha finally brought me around to liking her. All in all it’s a good story and a quick read.

*Review copy provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review.

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Kindle http://amzn.to/1MhgsB1
Amazon PBK http://amzn.to/1Op3ENs
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VICIOUS CYCLE SERIES BY KATIE ASHLEY

✦Vicious Cycle (Book 1) – REVIEW
Publication Date: June 2, 2015
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Amazon PBK http://amzn.to/1wJYhCR
B&N http://bit.ly/1L9Njrj
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✦Redemption Road (Book 2) – REVIEW
Publication Date: October 6, 2015
Kindle $5.99 http://amzn.to/1MU2eJa
Amazon PBK $10.86 http://amzn.to/1MU2bNt
B&N http://bit.ly/1RwNqBM
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✦Last Mile (Book 3)
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Kindle http://amzn.to/1MhgsB1
Amazon PBK http://amzn.to/1Op3ENs
B&N http://bit.ly/1jeEq8v
Kobo http://bit.ly/1G0TWiM
iBooks http://apple.co/1WQfdAd

~*~*~*~

Enter to win a Paperback Copy of LAST MILE by Katie Ashley

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~*~*~*~

Katie Ashley is the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Selling author of The Proposition Series, Runaway Train Series, as well as several New Adult and Young Adult titles. Her latest series, Vicious Cycle, has been picked up for publication by Penguin Books.

She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her two very spoiled dogs. She has a slight obsession with Pinterest, The Golden Girls, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Supernatural, Sons of Anarchy, Downton Abbey, Designing Women, and Scooby-Doo.

With a BA in English, a BS in Secondary English Education, and a Masters in English Education, she spent 11 1/2 years educating the Youth of America aka teaching MS and HS English until she left to write full time in December 2012.

Social Media Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

April 28, 2016

Spotlight Tour: Review, Guest Post & Giveaway: Flash of Fire (Firehawks Series) by M.L. Buchman

Flash of Fire (Firehawks) by M.L. Buchman

Publication Date: May 3, 2016

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Fourth in M.L. Buchman’s critically acclaimed Firehawks romantic suspense series

When former Army National Guard helicopter pilot Robin Harrow joins Mount Hood Aviation, she expects to fight fires for only one season. Instead, she finds herself getting deeply entrenched with one of the most elite firefighting teams in the world. And that’s before they send her on a mission that’s seriously top secret, with a flight partner who’s seriously hot.

Mickey Hamilton loves flying, firefighting, and women, in that order. But when Robin Harrow roars across his radar, his priorities go out the window. On a critical mission deep in enemy territory, their past burns away and they must face each other. Their one shot at a future demands that they first survive the present—together.

~*~*~*~

Author Guest Post

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the latest in my Firehawks world.

Flash of Fire posed an interesting challenge for me right from the first page. There is a balance in building a romance world: I want it to be big enough to be interesting and small enough to be cozy.

In Pure Heat, Full Blaze, and Hot Point I had focused on the fliers of the three big Firehawk helicopters. But I didn’t want my little Mount Hood Aviation heli-aviation wildland firefighting group to get much bigger. Another consideration was that the series name is Firehawks and I wanted to honor that with another story using a pilot of one of the converted Black Hawk helicopters.

The challenge was that I already had married couples in each of the three pilot seats: Emily Beale, Jeannie Clark, and Vern Taylor.

And then I remembered a little scene in the Night Stalkers Bring On the Dusk.

Emily hadn’t eaten breakfast and only picked at her lunch complaining of a queasy stomach from the flight.

“Either that or you’re about to have another kid,” Claudia teased her.

Emily looked down at her perfectly flat stomach and then began swearing. “I’m going to kill Mark. I’m just going to kill him.”

“You don’t want another kid?” Claudia didn’t know whether to laugh or be shocked.

“The man is so insatiable, not that I’m complaining. We ran out of protection and figured one time without wasn’t going to…”

She sighed and then rubbed her belly gently. “It’ll be alright.” She told her midriff. “You just won’t have a father.”

The goofy smile that bloomed on the woman’s face did something to Claudia.

Well, crap! I’d made poor Emily pregnant back in March, a year ago. So apologies for the 15-month pregnancy (no wonder she’s so pissed off by the time she’s too pregnant to fly in Flash of Fire).

With her seat now open, I needed someone who could fill it. Fill Emily Beale’s seat? Who was I kidding? She was the most kickass heroine I’d ever written. Well, I wasn’t the only one feeling daunted, the poor character I put in her place was plenty overwhelmed as well.

But then Robin Harrow never met a challenge she couldn’t face down…at least not until she met Mickey Hamilton, the pilot of a smaller Bell Twin-212. Which also solved my initial problem of transitioning from the big Firehawks to the smaller birds in the fleet.

I always love it when the characters take the story right out of my hands and run with it and Flash of Fire was certainly one of those.

Hope you enjoy the flight,
M. L. “Matt” Buchman

~*~*~*~

Donna review 4.5 stars

I liked Robin from the start. She was talented and badass but you could still relate to her. I especially loved her realistic reactions to being the new girl in the group. The author writes all the characters and how they interact in a fun way that makes you believe they have faced the ongoing dangers of firefighting together for a long time. There is a lot of technical information about fighting fires and the aircraft used but it did not detract from the lovely romance. Mickey is every girls dream, not only in sexiness but in how he lets Robin be Robin. This is another exciting installment in the Firehawks series and I loved it.

*Review copy provided by Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

~*~*~*~

Best buddies Mickey and Gordon have been jostling for attention from Vanessa, one of the other helicopter pilots. Gordon and Vanessa are assigned off to one fire, Mickey and the new pilot to another. They’re standing on the airfield about to part ways.

Mickey almost left Gordon to his own devices, but he’d be bound to screw it up. Just as he was duty bound to try to cut his friend off from any attractive woman, he also had to help him if he could.
“Gordon?”
“What?” his friend still looked a little overwhelmed.
“With Vanessa, just be yourself. Don’t gum it up with trying to be charming; it doesn’t work for you.”
“Sure it does,” he protested. “I’m a charming kind of guy.” He shot Mickey a grin.
Then he looked more carefully at Mickey’s expression and sighed. Mickey didn’t have to say a word.
“Okay, maybe not so much with the charm. Thanks, Mick,” and he turned for his helo.
Mickey caught his sleeve before he could move off, “Her name?” he nodded back over his shoulder toward the newbie.
“Robin something.”
“Like the bird?”
“Like,” that smooth female voice sounded from close behind him, “Robin Hood who will put an arrow in your ass if you say Robin Red Breast.”
Mickey turned to face her. He decided that all of his first judgments at a distance were accurate, and at this close range they were ten times more powerful—both the fine looks and the serious dose of attitude.
“Hi! Mickey Hamilton,” he held out a hand. “As long as it’s not a Firehawk you’re trying to ram up my ass, I’m fine.”
That earned a half smile; nice on the lips, not touching those crystalline pure blue eyes. Her hand was fine-fingered yet strong, like she did a lot of lifting with it. A lot. She glanced over his shoulder.
“He’s Gordon Finchley,” Mickey filled in before Gordon could speak and get a foot in the door. Helping him with Vanessa was one thing; easing his access to this pretty unknown was not going to happen. “Yeah, Finch just like a little Tweety bird. Don’t pay him any mind.”
“Hi, Gordon. Good luck in Leavenworth,” she leaned around Mickey and reached out a hand, which Gordon shook as he mumbled something unintelligible. Or perhaps it was intelligible and Mickey just couldn’t hear it.
He was struck by several things at once. It was the first time he’d actually seen Robin move, and both of his first guesses of ballerina and workout diva were equally justified. Her simple move was both lithe and powerful. Martial arts student perhaps. If so, it was a different form than his Taekwondo, something with more grace and flexibility.
Also, her lean toward Gordon had placed her so close that he could smell her. Her Nomex flightsuit was brand new and the woman wearing it smelled of clean soap and…cool ice—that impossible clarity of air when snow skiing. As if—newborn was the wrong image—newly wrought.
# # #
Gordon actually wasn’t fluttery like a Tweety bird, but he was also clearly a sweet man—a major mark against him in Robin’s book.
She knew from past experience that she tended to scare the shit out of men like him. They wanted her, but she would run over them roughshod, even on the rare occasions when she was trying not to.
This Mickey on the other hand, she had been able to feel him watching her from the moment she’d hit the line. He hadn’t shifted away as she reached past him to greet Gordon, letting her lean right into his personal space.
Guys named Mickey were supposed to look like hoodlums or something. Instead Mickey Hamilton looked like a cop…or a firefighter. The trustworthy kind, not the sneaky shit she’d always pictured slipping from her mother’s bed in the dark of the night and never coming back.
Up close she could appreciate how nicely broad his shoulders were. And he had the kind of blue eyes that could see through any fog or other BS—far away the best feature on a very handsome face. He was an inch taller than she was but looked bigger and more solid than his taller finch-friend.
Robin knew that—because her heritage was half firefighter and half truck-stop mama—she was a pushover for Mickey’s type. Now she had to ask if she wanted to be a pushover this time, or not.
She rocked back onto her heels and Gordon slipped out of her attention. Mickey didn’t fade in the slightest. He had a slow smile, a real one that showed beneath the quick grin he’d been using to tease his buddy.
He didn’t blink, squint, look away…or look down toward her chest. Mickey faced her eye to eye and offered that easy smile.
Summer is definitely looking up, she thought to herself. Most definitely. Didn’t mean she was going to make it easy for him.
“Mickey? Like the mouse?”
Gordon snorted out a laugh, slapped Mickey on the back, and headed away.
“Not Mickey Rooney either,” he offered in an unperturbed tone, showing no desire to hurry off to his aircraft.
“Not short and round?”
“Nor likely to break into a song-and-dance routine. And Mickey Mantle died about the time we both entered grade school, so I’m not him either.”
“How about Mickey Blue Eyes?”
“Well, my name is Mickey. Eyes are blue.”
“You don’t strike me as the Hugh Grant romantic comedy type.”
He shrugged noncommittally, “You the type to watch them?”
“Not so much,” Robin admitted. Astute question. “So, Mick Blue Eyes it is.”
At that he smiled and those blue eyes lit and sparkled with laughter that was only suggested by the sudden curve of his lips.

~*~*~*~

Kindle: http://amzn.to/1qVPtHG
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Chapters: http://bit.ly/1WBmyF6
Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1qTKDuW
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1MDB1hA

Amazon Series Link: http://amzn.to/1qVPDyM

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5 Copies of Pure Heat by M.L. Buchman

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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M. L. Buchman has over 35 novels and an ever-expanding flock of short stories in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year,” Booklist “Top 10 of the Year,” and RT “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of the Year.” In addition to romantic suspense, he also writes contemporaries, thrillers, and fantasy and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world.

He is now a full-time writer, living on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife. He is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing at http://www.mlbuchman.com.

AUTHOR LINKS: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube

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April 25, 2016

Review: FIRE BOUND: A Sea Haven Novel by Christine Feehan

FIRE BOUND: A Sea Haven Novel by Christine Feehan

Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sea Haven novels returns to the circle of the six sisters of the heart, bound by the elements—and to one who possesses the power to inflame the most dangerous passions of all.

Flame-haired glass blower Lissa Piner has been commissioned to design chandeliers for a string of luxury hotels in Italy. But Lissa’s real mission is a secret. For her entire life has been a lie, and now is the time to right a terrible wrong.

Enlisted as her bodyguard is Casmir Prakenskii, a trained assassin, living off the grid. In Lissa, he sees a kindred spirit—something unexpected and wicked, mysterious and sensual. But more than mere passion has brought them together: two pasts that cry out for revenge. And before the night is over, as an ominous storm brews, someone is going to get burned.

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Donna review 4.5 stars

Another hot installment in the Seahaven series. For some reason I like Casimir the best. He’s domineering but still has a deep appreciation for Lissa’s strength and abilities. They meshed well together and the danger and intrigue was perfect for them both. The story kept me on the edge of my seat and the hot hot romance made me melt. The romantic suspense was so riveting that I forgot it was a paranormal romance, and I liked that. Overall it I enjoyed it very much and cannot wait for the next brother to have his turn.

*Review copy provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review.

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Trailer

Fire Bound by Christine Feehan Book Trailer https://youtu.be/5OVWYu28iOk via @YouTube

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Excerpt

Read Chapter 1: http://christinefeehan.com/fire_bound/chapter1.php

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Buy Links

Kindle | Amazon PBK | B&N | iBooks

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✦The Sea Haven Series by Christine Feehan✦

Although all the books were written as stand alones, they were meant to be read in the following order:

1. Water Bound ➢ Amazon: http://amzn.to/1MSTk2G

2. Spirit Bound ➢ Amazon: http://amzn.to/1MSTdnG

3. Air Bound ➢ Amazon: http://amzn.to/1SZNSXS

4. Earth Bound ➢ Amazon: http://amzn.to/1S2EdQp | Review 4 Stars: http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-2KP

5. Fire Bound ➢ Amazon: http://amzn.to/1mo9PXt

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#1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan has over 40 novels published, including four series. Each of her four series has hit #1 on the NY Times. Her debut novel Dark Prince received 3 of the 9 Paranormal Excellence Awards in Romantic Literature for 1999. Since then she has been published by Leisure Books, Pocket Books, and currently is writing for Berkley/Jove. She also has earned 7 more PEARL awards.

She is pleased to have made numerous bestseller lists including the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Bookscan, B. Daltons, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Waldenbooks, Ingrams, Borders, Rhapsody Book Club, Washington Post, and Walmart. She has received numerous honors throughout her career including being a nominee for the RWA’s RITA. She has received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times and the Borders 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

She has been published in multiple languages and in many formats, including large print, palm pilot, e-book, and hardcover. In October of 2007 her first manga comic, Dark Hunger was released in stores. This was the first ever manga comic released by Berkley Publishing and it made #11 on Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller’s List. Her ground-breaking book trailer commercials have been shown on TV and in the movie theaters. She has been featured on local TV, appeared on the The Montel Williams Show, and her book Dark Legend was featured on the cover of Romantic Times Magazine.

Christine Feehan has also appeared at numerous writers’ conventions and book signings including: Romantic Times Convention, Get Caught Reading at Sea Cruise, Celebrate Romance Conference, Emerald City Conference, and numerous Romance Writers of America Conferences.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

March 28, 2016

Review, Q&A and Giveaway: Hold Your Breath (Search and Rescue Series) by Katie Ruggle

Hold Your Breath (Search and Rescue Series) by Katie Ruggle

Publication Date: April 5, 2016

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense

In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder…

As the captain of Field County’s ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise “Lou” Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he’s never felt more alive…even if keeping her safe may just kill him.

Lou’s new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she’s determined to make it on her own terms…no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themsePlves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou—and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.

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This book was a witty, fast-paced story that kept me on the edge of my seat. I related to Lou right away; her strength, her humor and her struggle to be independent was entertaining. I completely related to her choice in falling for Callum as well. I knew there was more to the hot boss-man and boy was I right. I just wish their consummation of all that sexual tension happened earlier but that did not take away from my love of the book. The Search and Rescue Team seems like a fun diverse group of people who have an easy rapport that I can’t get enough of. Their funny camaraderie just made them all real and showed how they deal with the danger above and below the ice. I read way past my bedtime because I could not put it down until I knew what happened with the danger and the romance. I highly recommend this novel and I cannot wait for the next installment.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Kindle $3.82 http://amzn.to/1P4yEFa
Amazon PBK $5.99 http://amzn.to/1PhB8Nx
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1ZjLPDb
iBooks: http://apple.co/1PmevE9
IndieBound: http://bit.ly/1Rw5LwK

PREQUEL NOVELLA IS FREE

✦FREE ➢ On His Watch: Search and Rescue (Novella) by Katie Ruggle
Kindle http://amzn.to/1n61qck
B&N http://bit.ly/1NbCOUh
Kobo http://bit.ly/1KhBsr5

Search and Rescue Series
On His Watch (novella) http://amzn.to/1n61qck
Hold Your Breath (Releasing April 5, 2016) http://amzn.to/1P4yEFa
Fan the Flames
Gone too Deep
In Safe Hands

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First of all I loved this book and the prequel novella, On His Watch. The witty dialogue was so much fun mixed in with the danger and romance.

Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Except for the few times I was reduced to banging my head against the desk when my characters refused to cooperate, it was a blast to write, too.

1. You have a well-rounded background so I would like to ask; did those experiences urge you to become a novelist or did the desire to write spur your exciting life choices?

My life and writing mostly ran in tandem. I chose the eclectic range of jobs and classes and hobbies because I thought, “That sounds fun.” Once I started the Search and Rescue series, though, my experiences began sneaking into the books. In Hold Your Breath, Lou’s first time in a dry suit was uncomfortably close to mine (minus the hot men—oh, and the dead body). My editor had to keep steering me away from too-graphic forensic descriptions. What is “interesting” and “kind of awesome” to me is “gross” to her and most of the rest of the world.

As most people who know me can attest, I can discuss alternative energy systems for hours, long after the listener’s eyes have glazed over with boredom. Therefore, I tried to restrain myself when writing about Lou’s rudimentary system, although a few of my own challenges crept in. Sometimes, like Lou, I just wanted toast, but when my wind turbine and propane generator were both down, leaving only the PV (solar) panels, there was no toast for me—at least not during non-daylight hours. There was no TV, either, which meant I got a lot of writing done.

2. I love the camaraderie of the Rescue Team most of all but what do you love the most about your characters?

Yay! I really wanted to capture the closeness of a team of first responders, so I’m glad it clicked for you. I think my favorite aspect of the Search and Rescue series is the characters’ courage. Whether it’s jumping into ice-cold water, running into a burning building or just deciding to make a positive life change and following through, they face fear head-on and push past it. I’m amazed and impressed by how real-life first responders go to work every day, knowing that they could encounter life-threatening dangers. That steady, constant bravery truly impresses me.

3. What was the easiest and what was the hardest part of writing this book?

The easiest part, surprisingly enough, was writing the first drafts. The stories seemed to just flow out of me, and, after going out to sweep snow off the solar panels or feed the wood boiler, I’d be excited about returning to writing a scene. The hardest part…hm. It was probably the edits. Normally, I love doing edits, love rearranging the story until it’s as good as we (my editors and I) can get it. Since I’ve started working the overnight shift at a bakery, however, my editing and writing time has been compressed into that too-short period between making bread and writing words. With the rapid-fire release schedule of the Search and Rescue series (all the books are only two months apart), things have been…busy. Overall, though, the process has been amazing. Working with Sourcebooks has been a wonderful experience.

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