'Soundings: Water Elemental' by Janine Donoho

Title: Soundings: Water Elemental

Author: Janine Donoho

Genre: adult paranormal suspense/thriller

Publisher: Booktrope Publishing

Is there hope for a grieving mother’s heart?

Ecopsychologist Dr. Margo Updike loses herself in a shadow life after her daughter’s tragic death. When a century storm deposits a young girl on Maggie’s secluded beach in Puget Sound, a miraculous renewal begins. Then the apparent orphan exhibits signs of neglect and worse, prompting Maggie’s vow to protect and heal her—no matter the cost.

The arrival of a mysterious man claiming to be Sorcha’s father upends Maggie’s life. She finds Morrissey strangely irresistible even as her friend Sheriff Ajax Smith questions the man’s motives and odd behavior. As a serial killer’s victims begin surfacing in Seal Cove, Jax must curb his suspicions to enlist Maggie as a profiler.

Will Jax and Maggie find the murderer before he strikes again? With Morrissey’s secrets trapping Maggie on destructive shoals between reality and legend, can she grasp his true nature before losing her chance to rebuild a life worth living? To what depths—and heights—will she go for a daughter, a beloved man and, ultimately, her humanity?

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Award-winning writer Janine Donoho grew up navigating extremes—perhaps due to the ups-and-downs of her San Franciscan birthplace. That Escher landscape primed her to embrace imaginary worlds. With one foot planted in fuzzy science and the other in invented realms, she inhabits the land of WHAT IF. Published in novel-length and short fiction, along with essays, Janine pursues the thumps that echo in the night—and writes about those, too.

With her intrepid husband, Italian greyhound and tuxedo cat, Janine makes her home in the spectacular Okanogan highlands of Washington State. Mountain lions, coyotes, and bears—oh, my!

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'LoveLines (Wilmington Saga #1)' by S. Walden Release Day Blitz!

Arrive to work at 7:58 A.M. sharp. Check. Count forty-seven steps to cubicle. Check. Arrange pens in their red-blue-black-green-purple order of importance. Check. Apply hand sanitizer before opening email. Double check.

And that’s just the first few minutes of her work day.

Thirty-one-year-old proofreader Bailey Mitchell is a slave to her tics. She inherited Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from her father, and it’s done nothing but inhibit her love life. She’s run the gamut of boyfriends—none of them willing or able to cope with her condition.

Enter 32-year-old Reece Powell, her new coworker at Beach Elite Marketing Firm. He’s more than willing to cope. He finds her habits cute and quirky . . . for now. Reece wins her over, and life coasts along for them until Bailey experiences a devastating blow. Tragedy exacerbates her OCD, and Reece realizes her tics aren’t so cute and quirky anymore. Just like all the others, he has the choice to leave.

But Reece isn't like all the others.

The Wilmington Saga
Follow the stories of Wilmington, NC residents as they fall in and out of love, mend and break hearts, grow, change, lose, win, and experience what it means to truly live in this small coastal community.

Graphic credit: Michelle @ Give Me Books

“Annie!” I squealed, running and scooping her up before she had the chance to escape. I rained kisses all over her face. She was clearly confused, but she seemed to like it. The evidence? She dropped her doll and squeezed my neck.

Erica stared at me through narrowed eyes. “No one, including me, likes my children that much. What is going on?”

Annie giggled on cue, like she understood her mother’s words. I laughed outright.

“Your momma’s silly, isn’t she? Isn’t she?” I asked, poking Annie’s sides.

“Oh my God, who are you?” Erica demanded. “Where’s my BFF who promised me she’d never have children so I could live vicariously through her? I swear to God if you’re pregnant…”

“Calm down,” I said over the top of Annie’s head. She twisted in my arms signaling she was over my show of affection. I placed her on the floor beside her discarded doll. “How would I even be pregnant?”

“Sex. It’s called sex,” Erica replied. She finished folding the last of Little Noah’s shirts, then tossed it in the laundry basket.

“Don’t say s-e-x in front of the baby!” I chided.

“B, she doesn’t know what sex is.”

“She’ll repeat it.”

“Who cares?”

“Oh, so you want to be the mother with the kid who knows the bad words?” I asked.

“Bad word?” Erica asked, laughing.

“You know what I mean,” I said. “You want to be the mother who all the other mothers gossip about? Like about how bad your parenting skills are?”

Erica placed her hand on her hip. “Yeah, I do. Fuck ‘em. Fuck all those mothers. Fuck their playdates and mommy groups and fucking Melissa and Doug puzzles. Fuck their running strollers and baby couture and breastfeeding advice. Fuck their—”

“ERICA!”

“What?”

I looked down at the floor, but Annie was gone. She’d walked away somewhere, no doubt the kitchen since that seemed to be her favorite place to play.

S. Walden used to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband, who prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding why her characters must have personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead. She is the USA Today bestselling author of Going Under. When she's not writing, she's thinking about it.

She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her twitter feed at @swaldenauthor.

Website: http://www.swaldenauthor.com
Blog: http://swaldenauthor.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/swaldenauthor
Twitter: @swaldenauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/swaldenauthor

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'His Hometown Girl' by Karen Rock

He'd always managed to best her…

Jodi Chapman will do whatever it takes to get top care for her autistic son. If that means going home and convincing local farmers to sell their land, so be it. Even if her biggest opponent, childhood rival Daniel Gleason, is equally determined to convince farmers to buy into his co-op plan. And he's not playing fair.

Facing off against Daniel is the last thing Jodi wants. The attraction that's always fueled their competitiveness is as strong as ever and just as distracting. But with both their futures on the line, and years of distrust between them, how can they ever be on the same side?

 PREORDER

She felt her joints loosen and she relaxed against him. “So you’re okay with us being together, just for this summer?”

He tucked a curl behind her ear and the feel of his touch made her shiver. It was so quiet, she could hear every breath he took, felt it vibrate through him in the cramped bottom of the boat.

“Let’s enjoy every moment together until it’s our last.”

“But that moment isn’t today,” she said, so grateful that he’d agreed. She wanted to be with him until she couldn’t. It was that simple.

His hand smoothed the length of her hair as he gazed into her eyes, his expression tender and full of longing. “No. It’s not.” The words sounded so reverent they could have been a prayer.

His fingers trailed down her cheek to her lips, outlining the shape of her mouth. He bent down, his lips against her cheek, brushing it lightly. Shivers ran through her whole body, making her tremble. He brushed his mouth against the hollow of her temple then traced the line of her jawbone.

The aching anticipation for his kiss was suddenly too much and she reached up and pulled his mouth to hers. He kissed her gently, carefully, but it wasn’t gentleness she wanted, not when time was fleeting. She knotted her fists in his shirt, and pulled him closer. He groaned softly, low in his throat, and then his arms circled her, gathering her against him as the boat rocked beneath them. The small possibility of falling into the water vanished as soon as it occurred to her.

All that existed was Daniel. She could feel his warmth burning through his clothes and hers. She ran her fingers along his arm—soft skin over lean muscle, a scar like a thin wire on his biceps. It was an imperfection that made him seem even more perfect. He fumbled as he pushed her heavy hair aside to kiss her ear. She didn’t think she’d ever seen his hands unsteady before.

She trailed her nose across his jaw, inhaling the clean smell of summer countryside, of him. He released a pent-up breath, the sound like music. Her pulse tapped a fast beat and her breath quickened with it. She stroked his cheek and kissed every inch of his neck until he moaned again. Or maybe she’d made the sound; they seemed to share each breath, each heartbeat. It felt as if the universe disappeared and all that remained was the two of them, holding each other close.

“I forgot it was like this,” she said when Daniel pulled back and looked down at her. It seemed as if the stars hurtled down around her head like a rain of silver tinsel.

“It wasn’t.” He kissed her nose, then traced the line of her cheek with his fingertip, a dreamlike intensity in his gaze. “This is better.”

And she never wanted it to end. She felt feverishly alive, every nerve ending jangling as they watched the sky, enjoying the private moment.

“I agree,” she sighed, nestling against his side. “I wish we could stay like this forever.” When he toyed with her earlobe, she tried, unsuccessfully, to settle her heart back in her body. She watched the stars shimmer above and it also felt as though they were celebrating.

“Me, too,” he said softly in her ear. He captured her lips in a kiss so fierce and full of longing that it felt like a love song.

Karen Rock has adored romance since receiving Harlequin Presents books from her grandmother each summer. She formed her Young Adult writing partnership, J.K. Rock- pseudonym for the CAMP BOYFRIEND series, with her sister-in-law and Blaze author, Joanne Rock in 2011. When Karen heard of a call for submissions to Heartwarming, Harlequin’s latest line, she was inspired by the possibilities of writing unforgettable, deeply romantic, tender love stories that mothers would feel comfortable sharing with their daughters. When she’s not writing, Karen loves scouring estate sales for vintage books, cooking her grandmother's family recipes, hiking the ‘high peaks’, and redesigning her gardens. She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, daughter, and two Cavalier King cocker spaniels who have yet to understand the concept of “fetch” though they know a lot about love.

For more information about Karen's upcoming books, check out her website at http://www.karenrock.com, Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/karenrockwrites or follow her on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/karenrock5 . She’d love to hear from you!

Website ☆ Facebook ☆ Twitter ☆ Goodreads

GIVEAWAY #1
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
-$50 Amazon Gift Card
-SIGNED copy of HIS HOMETOWN GIRL by Karen Rock

2nd & 3rd PRIZE WINNERS
-SIGNED copies of HIS HOMETOWN GIRL by Karen Rock

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GIVEAWAY #2

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
-$25 Gift Card (Amazon or B&N)
-Shadow's Curse by Alexa Egan
-A Cursed Embrace by Cecy Robson
-His Reluctant Rancher by Roxanne Snopek
-Free Fall by Karen Foley

To enter: Pre-order a copy of HIS HOMETOWN GIRL on Kindle http://amzn.to/1eveD3C or Nook http://bit.ly/1ktNqWq!
Email a copy or picture of your receipt to karenrock@live.com along with-
Your name:
Your email address:
Blog you found the contest on:
You'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to either Amazon or Barnes and Nobles (your choice) as well as the four books in the prize picture.
LAST DAY TO ENTER IS FEBRUARY 28!

'Seven Years of Bad Luck' by J.L. Mac

When twenty-six year old Kathleen Cooper realizes that she forfeited her dreams and aspirations of becoming a lawyer after a brash decision to run off and marry the insanely charming Aidan Cooper, she decides to regain what she lost over the course of their seven-year relationship and start fresh.

With a renewed sense of hope and determination, she moves to a different city, lands a new job, and meets the handsome Benjamin Chase in a serendipitous way.

But even with all of these changes and hopes of gaining a new life, Kathleen is still not happy with the person she sees in the mirror staring back at her. She is an insomniac. She generally has bad luck in just about everything she attempts. She’s clumsy, and even if Prince Charming fell into her lap, she would likely push him in the opposite direction, for fear of getting hurt or worse, hurting someone else. This time she can’t blame any of these things on her bad luck or her destructive marriage. This time, it’s not her heart that’s in danger. This time, she has much more to lose and everything to gain.

Will she realize her mistakes in time to repair the damage?
Will she be able to reverse her shattered self-image and discover true happiness?
Will she ever find her way back to the person she was before seven years of bad luck?

           Chill bumps spread like a fierce wildfire across the surface of my skin. I couldn’t tell if Ben noticed or not. I hoped that he didn’t. He leaned slightly to his left and deposited his coffee cup onto an end table. Then it was his turn to break our intense silence, and boy, he didn’t just break the silence, he shattered it into a million pieces along with my stupid ploy and formerly bolstered, but newly absent, courage. Apparently, once Ben spoke, my smart-mouthed inner Kat disappeared in a hurry. His voice came out low and rough; each syllable that rolled off his tongue seemed to stroke me internally, causing my stomach to flip and flutter wildly.

            “Kathleen, am I the one to thank for these chill bumps, all over your skin or did something else do this for you?” As he spoke to me, he lifted his right hand and lightly brushed the backs of his long fingers down my right upper arm then swirled a light circle around my elbow and continued down the sensitive inner skin of my forearm, skating across my flesh with barely-there strokes from his nimble fingers.

             I kept my eyes cast away from his. I seemed incapable of looking directly into his eyes. I felt as if looking straight into those glowing depths of vivid blue would cause me to be swallowed up whole and pulled beneath the surface to blissfully drown in him. The fierce sexual energy that permeated the air around Ben made it difficult to breathe, and it intimidated me.  I chose not to answer him. Or perhaps I couldn’t answer him. 

            “Kathleen, look at me.” His commanding tone and presence was hard to challenge even from a distance and far more grueling a task within such close quarters. I could smell him, I could feel the warmth from his body radiating outward, and I could clearly hear each breath he drew from the space between us and pulled down to fill his lungs. I felt a powerful crimson, heated blush roll through my veins. It coursed throughout my body leaving evidence of my arousal in its wake. My skin heated, and my neck and cheeks flushed into a hot red. I realized that I was helplessly adrift in a sea of desire and arousal and that battling the current would be useless. I could either embrace the journey along the formidable pull of the current, or I could fight in vain against Mother Nature, knowing that undoubtedly I would lose. 

            “Look at me. Answer my question.” I lifted my eyes from the floor, but still avoided his stare. 

            He extended his long index finger and placed the pad of it beneath my chin and encouraged my head to tilt back, forcing my eyes to meet his. The moment we locked eyes, my breathing halted , and I felt my stomach flip and flutter all over again with a heightened need that exceeded any feeling I had experienced before it, ever. I battled against myself for composure so that I could finally answer him. I had not the faintest idea of what I would say, but I knew I needed to say something. My eyes darted around a bit, and he released my jaw, giving me an opportunity to speak. 

            Tit for tat, I thought. 

            “You never answered my own question, Mr. Chase.” I made a point to emphasize his name in hopes that sounding more like his employee would bring a halt to his request for an answer. I was hoping we could end this torturous little tango that had me tied up in knots.

             No, Kat. You wish Ben had you tied up. He hasn’t done it yet. 

            And with that sarcastic little jab to my sex life (or lack thereof), the inner Kat sauntered back into my head as if she had merely stepped away for a moment, but didn’t go too far.

Emma Stone as KAT

Gerald Butler as BEN

USA Today Best Selling Author,J.L. Mac is twenty-seven years old and currently resides in El Paso, Texas, where she enjoys living near her family. She was born and raised in Galveston, Texas. J.L. admittedly has had a long and sordid love affair with the written word and has loved every minute of it. She drinks too many glasses of wine on occasion,and says way too many swear words to be considered “lady-like.” J.L. spends her free time reading, writing, and playing with her children.

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Cover Reveal! 'Love Lines (The Wilmington Saga Book #1)' by S. Walden

Release Date: March 25, 2014
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Spice Factor: Freaking Hot (don't let the cutesy cover fool you)

Arrive to work at 7:58 A.M. sharp. Check. Count forty-seven steps to cubicle. Check. Arrange pens in their red-blue-black-green-purple order of importance. Check. Apply hand sanitizer before opening email. Double check.

And that’s just the first few minutes of her work day.

Thirty-one-year-old proofreader Bailey Mitchell is a slave to her tics. She inherited Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from her father, and it’s done nothing but inhibit her love life. She’s run the gamut of boyfriends—none of them willing or able to cope with her condition.

Enter 32-year-old Reece Powell, her new coworker at Beach Elite Marketing Firm. He’s more than willing to cope. He finds her habits cute and quirky . . . for now. Reece wins her over, and life coasts along for them until Bailey experiences a devastating blow. Tragedy exacerbates her OCD, and Reece realizes her tics aren’t so cute and quirky anymore. Just like all the others, he has the choice to leave.

But Reece isn't like all the others.

The Wilmington Saga
Follow the stories of Wilmington, NC residents as they fall in and out of love, mend and break hearts, grow, change, lose, win, and experience what it means to truly live in this small coastal community.

 “Tell me again why we’ve done our last four beach trips here?” I said. “I mean, we know everyone in this goddamn town. Isn’t the point of a trip to get away? So we don’t have to see people?”

“Bailey, tone down the bitchiness, okay?” Erica ordered. She dug around the inside of her purse for her cell phone. “And you know why. Noah, God love him, is a moron with our kids. I’ve gotta stay close until they get older.”

I snorted, then took off towards another club.

“Bailey!” Erica called, running after me.

“I’m not ready to go back to the hotel,” I said, shrugging off her arm.

“That’s fine. We can hang out, but if you go dark on me . . .”

“Nobody’s going dark, okay? I just wanna get my dance on,” I replied.

I spent the rest of the evening getting wasted and looking like a total slut on the dance floor. My goal was to erase two recent painful memories: shaking my ass for Reece and seeing my ex-fiancé on a booty date.

When Erica and I emerged from the club at 2:30 A.M., a taxi van was waiting. A group of young men (one carrying a case of beer) cut in front of us and threw open the van door.

“Oh, well,” Erica said. “Let’s find another.”

The boy toting the beer spotted us. “Oh, my bad. You wanted this taxi?”

“It’s cool,” Erica replied. “You guys take it. We’ll wait for another.”

“Well, I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you come with us? We’re going to a film screening.”

The others nodded, shuffling around the sidewalk.

A film screening at 2:30 in the morning? Please. I shook my head. “Thanks, but we’re tired. We’re gonna go home.”

“Nah! Come with us. It’s gonna be a fun time,” Beer Boy pleaded.

“No no,” I replied. “You all go have a good time.”

He turned to his friend and muttered, “Fucking bitch.” A few of the boys snickered.

Excuse me?

And then something in my brain snapped. I watched that little college punk stand there, avoiding my face, gripping his bush-league beer while the taxi driver yelled at his punk ass posse to make a decision.

“Hey, son!” I called in his direction. “There’s no need for that. No need for that kind of language.”

He hung his head—literally hung his head—while I chastised him.

“Bailey, let’s go.” Erica tugged on my arm.

“Now, I’m sorry we turned you down, and I’m sorry if that embarrassed you, but maybe we don’t feel like ‘screening’ the bullshit home movie you shot for film class on your bullshit, cheap ass camcorder.”

“Oh my God,” Erica said.

“We got to this cab first. Then you and your dipshit friends come barreling down the sidewalk and steal it. What you need to be saying to me is ‘I’m sorry’. And then you need to go brush up on the manners you clearly left at home when you came to college. Ain’t nobody gonna wanna fuck a little asshole like you if you can’t be classy,” I said.

“Bailey!” Erica hauled me along.

“Punk ass motherfucker!” I yelled over my shoulder. He flipped me off. I fought Erica as hard as I could. “Let me at him. One minute with that little shit! Just one!”

“Bailey Mitchell!” Erica screamed in my face. “He’s a doofus! All right?! Calm. Down.”

S. Walden used to teach English before making the best decision of her life by becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Georgia with her very supportive husband, who prefers physics textbooks over fiction and has a difficult time understanding why her characters must have personality flaws. She is wary of small children, so she has a Westie instead. She is the USA Today bestselling author of Going Under. When she's not writing, she's thinking about it.

She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her twitter feed at @swaldenauthor.

Website: http://www.swaldenauthor.com
Blog: http://swaldenauthor.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/swaldenauthor
Twitter: @swaldenauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/swaldenauthor

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