Friday, 19 February 2021

The Maharaja's Fake Fiancée by Alisha Kay

 


What happens when a free-spirited actress and an uptight Maharaja fake an engagement?



Depending on whom you ask, you either get a match made-in-heaven or a royal disaster.
When Diya Sharma's meddlesome mother tries to throw her into the arms of a mom-approved suitor, Diya runs the other way. Right into the arms of the most scandal-averse Maharaja on earth.
His Highness Veerendra Singh can recognise a pain-in-the-ass when he sees it. Especially when it falls into his arms.
Even if said pain-in-the-ass has legs that go on for ever and lush lips that just beg to be kissed, Veer doesn’t need another scandalous actress destroying his family’s happiness. So all he wants to do is run in the opposite direction.
But, when a marriage-minded princess sets her sights on him, Veer runs back into Diya’s arms to propose a fake engagement.
When the lines between real and fake start to blur, Diya and Veer need to decide what is important? Long held prejudices or the yearnings of their heart?




Alisha Kay is a Delhi based writer, who writes romances set in India.

She doesn’t hold with the concept of damsel-in-distress, which is why her heroines are spunky women with a sharp tongue and the ability to rescue themselves. Her heroes are hot men who are woke enough to find that independence irresistible. 

A Maharaja of Her Own is Alisha’s first book.


Sight of Morrow Gone by Lauren C. Sergeant

 


Children of the Glaring Dawn, Book 3

Young Adult Fantasy

Published Date: Feb 20, 2021

Publisher: INtense Publications LLC


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Arriving at the capital as captives, Ihva and Jasper find themselves divided once more. Things have changed in Agda, though, and the situation reveals itself to be darker and more dire than either of them imagined. A fateful decision leaves them on the run, pursuing the salvation of Gant to protect its people from the new nemesis. As events unfold, Ihva and Jasper must each make choices concerning their love, their loyalty, and their lives, forcing them to face their fears and each other.

Will they maintain the courage to fight the war against the deepening Shadow, and more pressingly, can they find a way to fight it together?


About The Author

Lauren C. Sergeant, author of the Children of the Glaring Dawn series, adventures through life as a wife, mother, author, and assistant property manager. Having dabbled in over a dozen languages and taken more than a handful of international trips, she expresses her fascination with people in the novels she writes. The relationships of her characters with each other and with themselves draw readers into her keen attentiveness to what it means to be human. She spins epic tales of love, humor, and struggle, but in the end, she is just another individual on this quest called life.


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Old Mrs. Kimble's Mansion by George T.Arnold

 

 


Suspenseful Drama

Date Published January 2021

Publisher: Speaking Volumes


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Forty-four-year-old Forrest Alderson isn’t at all sure of his motives for returning from self-imposed exile to Asher Heights, West Virginia, to see his hometown for the first time since he graduated from college. All he knows for certain is it’s something he has to do if he is to find out whether he can break free from the tragedy that compelled him to flee or whether he is forever doomed to be imprisoned by it.

He has spent the intervening twenty-three years in sacrificial preparation, striving obsessively to become enormously wealthy with one exclusive goal: to at long last take possession of Old Mrs. Kimble’s mansion, no matter the cost, and let that magnificent structure he has coveted since he was a poor boy stand as proof to one and all that native son Forrest Walker Alderson has done himself proud.

Or could it be his return is motivated – as his attorney, Olivia Fillmore, fears – by revenge, an evil desire to rub his great wealth and success into the face of the one person who caused him to hermit himself away all those years without a wife, children, or even a close friend?

To have any chance of finding the answers he so desperately needs, Forrest will have to struggle through a challenging new romance, an addiction to a perilous old love, a sensational murder trial, and the inevitable decision about what to do with the rest of his life.



Other Books by George T. Arnold:


Wyandotte Bound

Adventure, Western

Publisher: Speaking Volumes

Published: January 2020

Bound, like many other strong words, finds its meaning in the perceptions of those it affects. To the Van Sheltons, it is positive and deep-rooted, defining their ties to a vast amount of land abundant in the timber, cattle, and silver that make them the wealthiest and the most powerful family in the town of Wyandotte and influential throughout the state of Nevada.

To J.D. Rohr, who has no money and few prospects, bound is a hopeful force, driving him to Wyandotte, where he assumes the identity of Jesse Bodine in a desperate attempt to live in obscurity, hiding from his reputation as one of the West’s most feared gunfighters.

For Dr. Frederick Albert Carlisle, an aristocratic Boston physician who becomes Jesse’s friend despite their romantic rivalry, bound is a magnetic lure that compels him to abandon his Beacon Hill mansion, his upper-class privileges, and his affluent patients in a quest to give meaning to his life by serving poor westerners sorely in need of his healing knowledge.

As for Honoria Lowell Blaire and Lillian Tomlinson Wellesley, blue-blooded descendants of two of New England’s oldest and most distinguished families, bound represents the chains that will bind them to “a God-forsaken wilderness” if they choose to live with the men they love instead of clinging to their pampered lives among America’s nobility.

And for the incomparably beautiful Jolene Lloyd, being bound is the same as virtual imprisonment when she is coerced into saving her family from financial catastrophe by being shackled to a ruthless, emasculated tyrant driven by hatred and bitterness to take control of Wyandotte and force the mighty Van Sheltons to grovel at his feet.

These and the other men and women of Wyandotte, the good and the bad, battle for a quarter of a century to determine their region’s fate during the fading years of the Western Frontier.

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Media Writer's Handbook

A Guide to Common Writing and Editing Problems

Writing, Editing

Popular with all audiences. The eight chapters in Part 1, “Improving Immediately,” provide opportunities for rapid and dramatic improvement in both writing and speaking skills. The book concludes with Part 4, Quick Reference, equally popular with Part 1 among students, teachers, mass media professionals and reviewers. It gives them more than 1,500 fast-check answers for words frequently confused, words frequently misspelled, irregular verbs, wordiness and trite expressions.

A thorough review. Parts 2 and 3 provide a thorough review of grammar and punctuation, the tools of a communicator’s trade. These 22 chapters are filled with detailed explanations, examples and advice on parts of speech, punctuation, sentence functions and structures, and syntax.

Speed and convenience are enhanced by the comprehensive table of contents and the index.

Free student workbook and an instructor’s manual. Teachers may obtain a workbook for students and an instructor’s manual free upon request. They can be used to supplement writing and editing courses or to provide a complete language skills course.

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One Minute Past Christmas

An Appalachian Christmas Short Story

Family Life

Publisher: Regency Solutions

One Minute Past Christmas is the story of a Greenbrier County, West Virginia, family in which a grandfather and his granddaughter share a special ability -- they call it a gift -- that enables them to briefly witness each year a miraculous gathering in the sky. What they see begins at precisely one minute past Christmas and fills them with as much relief as it does wonder. But they worry that the "gift" -- which they cannot reveal to anyone else -- will die with them because it has been passed to no other relative for forty-four years.

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About The Author


George T. Arnold, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University where he taught news and feature writing, language skills, ethics, and media law for 36 years. He worked full-time for seven years as a newspaper reporter to finance bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Marshall, and he has a doctorate in journalism and mass communications from Ohio University.

His textbook/resource book, Media Writer’s Handbook, a Guide to Common Writing and Editing Problems, is in its seventh edition and third decade of continuous publication. It has been purchased at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Arnold is the author of more than 50 professional and academic articles and has written a short story, One Minute Past Christmas, and two novels, Wyandotte Bound, and Old Mrs. Kimble’s Mansion.


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Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Ways You Could Be Sabotaging Your Training And How to Fix Them

 


Non-Fiction

Date Published: Feb 19th, 2021



Are you struggling to train your dog? This book can help!

Written by a certified Dog Trainer this book is designed to offer general dog training troubleshooting. The intent is to identify and address things you might unknowingly be doing that can sabotage your best training efforts and hinder your beloved companion’s progress.

The author, Tammy L. Hein brings up the specific issues she’s found to be the most common over her decade of dog training experience.

Every point is explained to help you see the downfalls of your methods from your dog’s perspective. With this book, you’ll gain deeper understanding why your dog behaves the way he does, where you’re falling short as a trainer, and best practices that’ll get you on the right track in no time! Don’t give up—get this book and get started!


Excerpt

Back when Rosie was two years old we started training for an Excellent title in Canadian Rally Obedience. This meant that we got to work with jumps, tunnels, and weave poles.

When I first started, I lured her to go through the weave poles. She caught on quickly, and we thought we were making progress.

Then I removed the lure, and she got lost. This caused both Rosie and I to get frustrated.


YouTube Video

https://youtu.be/xh5jvJCXo3A


About The Author


Tammy L. Hein gained her certification through Animal Behavior College Dog as a trainer and has ten years of experience training dogs. Her goal is to help dog owners better understand their four-legged companions and in doing so, help them better co-exist. She’s a firm believer that no dog is untrainable and that with the right tools, any owner can remedy their pet’s issues.

When she’s not writing books that will help dog owners, she’s training dogs, reading, or spending quality time with the people near and dear her heart—family and friends. Tammy lives in Saskatchewan, Canada and she’s married to a patient, loving husband. Together, they have two kids that are wilder than the craziest dogs she’s met; but she loves every moment.


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Sunday, 14 February 2021

Chokecherry Girl

 


Young Adult, Coming of Age, Multi-Cultural Fiction

Date Published: 2/16/21

Publisher Acorn Publishing



It’s 1958. Racial tension and class disparities have everyone on edge in a small Montana town. Despite their differences, three women of the community become the unlikeliest of friends.

BOBBI VERNON is a quirky teen, who will do whatever it takes to drive her teacher’s new Chevy convertible. Adding to the already volatile mix, she meets Pretty Weasel, an Indian basketball player, who calls her Chokecherry Girl. She dreams of dating him and wearing his class ring.

PATSY OLSON, after two failed marriages, is desperate to get her life back. After opening a beauty shop with a shaky bank loan, she watches Coach Vernon, Bobbi’s father, arriving for school each day. Attracted yet wary, she needs the business of the town ladies, including the Coach’s wife, Lois.

MARY AGNES LONE HILL, an alcoholic Crow Indian who was sent far away to a brutal Indian school as a child, now cleans houses for the town ladies and longs to end her estrangement with her son, Pretty Weasel.

These three women are drawn together through an illicit love affair, a stolen car, and a shooting that changes their lives forever.


About The Author

Award-winning California author and poet, Barbara Meyer Link, has had three stories aired on KVPR, a National Public Radio Affiliate. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous literary magazines and small presses. She also received the Sacramento State University Bazzanella Prize for fiction. Her memoir, Blue Shy, was published in 2010 and awarded first prize in the Sacramento Friends of the Library First Chapter contest. She co-authored Coffee and Ink, a handbook for writing groups and was a past editor of Sacramento’s Poetry Now. In addition, she was a poet/teacher for California Poets in the Schools for over fourteen years. Most recently, she was awarded second prize for poetry at the Mendocino Coast Writer’s contest.

Partial list of publications. American River Review, Poetry Now, Mindprint Review, Anima, Missouri Review, Women’s Compendium, Hardpan, Earth’s Daughter’s, (2014-2016) Whitefish Review, Dead Snakes, Noyo Review, Piker Press (on Dec 5, Dec 12)

Blue Moon Literary & Art Review (2019, 2020)


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Saturday, 13 February 2021

The Scent of a Man

 

Romantic Comedy

Date Published: February 5, 2021

Publisher: DCL Publications


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Warm your heart, put a smile on your face, and get ready for a bellyful of laughs with this collection of four original romantic comedies. Featuring laugh-out-loud tales by some of today’s most talented authors, ‘The Scent of a Man’ will pull you into the world of true love and the antics and misadventures that it takes to find it. Your cure for the doldrums and tribulations of the real world awaits in this shining collection of PG-13 short stories of lively, eclectic and humorous proportions. Remember, there is no greater scent than the scent of a man, so settle back, get comfortable, and take a nice, deep whiff of hilarity.


'Love Cabin' by Miriam Newman

He thinks she’s a snob. She thinks he hates women. It’s going to take a lot to work this out.


'Exiled to Love' by Jae El Foster

An exiled witch must learn to live without her powers, but will she risk losing everything to save a mortal’s life?


'The Scent of a Man' by Jennifer Patricia O’Keeffe

An injured woman must endure homecare with the aid of a handsome man that threatens to win her heart.


'The Scent of You' by Kristi Ahlers

A woman, terrified of flying, boards a plane at her brother’s beckoning. Can a first class surprise shake her from her nervous angst?


About the Authors

Miriam Newman


Fantasy poetry driven by myths and legends has been my passion for as long as I can remember. I was published in poetry before catching the romance writing bug. I bring that background to my writing along with a lifelong addiction to horses, an 18 year career in various areas of psychiatric social services and many trips to Ireland, where I nurture my muse. My published works range from contemporary fantasy romance to fantasy historical, futuristic, science fiction and historical romance. Currently I live in rural Pennsylvania with a “motley crew” of rescue animals. You can see my books at www.miriamnewman.com.


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Jae El Foster


When the muses speak, Jae El Foster writes, and he has been doing so for nearly twenty years, tackling some of the most intriguing genres out there. Delivering fresh, incomparable tales of horror, science fiction, and romance - sweet or spicy - he pens with seasoned skill the tales that his muses deliver to him. His bestselling works include such titles as ‘Restless,’ ‘Beauty Within,’ ‘Where the Demon Is,’ and ‘Only at Christmas.’


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Jennifer Patricia O’Keeffe


Jennifer Patricia O'Keeffe is an author of romantic comedy and anything quirky. She resides in Tennessee, just outside of Nashville where she shares a home with her cats. Ms. O'Keeffe loves to make the world laugh and to find humor and love in the least likely of places. Readers may keep up with her and her writings by following @authorjpokeeffe on Twitter.


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Kristi Ahlers


Kristi Ahlers is a California girl! She grew up in Northern California in a small city called Yuba City. Since then she's lived in Brussels, Belgium, and England along with a myriad of other locations. A former flight attendant, she was able to continue to feed her love of travel. This has greatly influenced her writing, allowing her to pen stories about places she's managed to visit and things she's experienced.


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Thursday, 11 February 2021

Arrow Struck by Alexa Piper

 


Publisher: Changeling Press

Paranormal Romance, RomCom

Date Published: Feb 12, 2021



Laurette is the luckiest Elf in all of New Elvenswood. His longtime friend the vampire Hugo and the human non-witch Charlie are both in love with Laurette, and he’s in love with them. Everything would be perfect if only those two would finally decide to move in with Laurette, quit their jobs, and spend all their time with him. And Laurette has plans to sway his lovers’ minds on Valentine’s Day.

Charlie finds herself tightly suspended between the attentions of one hot Elf and one hot vampire, and there is no place she would rather be. And then, a colleague decides he wants to claim Charlie, whether she’s in a relationship or not.

Enter Cupid, mistress of arrows and bringer of love, because loving the right person is especially important with spring warming hungry hearts… except not everyone agrees with the accuracy of Cupid’s aim.


Excerpt

Chapter One

The kitchen smelled wonderful, a cacophony of vanilla and cinnamon and chocolate. Yet Laurette had to admit that it looked more like an entrenched warzone with the large, centermost kitchen island being occupied by the freshly iced cakes on one side and by neat lines of cookies cooling on their racks on the other. What Laurette didn’t have to admit was that he was stress baking.

He turned his back on the kitchen island and faced the bain-marie in front of him where luscious chunks of chocolate were melting to velvety softness.

Gertrude!” Laurette barked. “Bring some of the cakes into one of the sitting rooms. I need the space. And send Heinrich to go out and get more candy hearts.” Wait. I can make heart-shaped pralines. With a touch of insta-lust magic in the filling. “And marzipan! I am making pralines.”

Milord, there are cakes in the sitting rooms already.” Gertrude had marched up to his elbow, her pointy hat just reaching up to the middle of Laurette’s upper arm. She was finally wearing the Valentine’s Day outfit Laurette had chosen for his pixie servants this year, a warm, raspberry pink with a tasteful line of darker hearts along the neck- and hemlines. They all looked wonderful in it.

Well, I am not done baking yet, Gertrude. Find someplace to put the cakes.” And I need more berries. Well. I cannot head to Faerie to pick berries before I do a test batch of the pralines. Why do the high holidays have to be so stressful if all you want to do is charm your lovers? And why do my lovers have to be so difficult! “And send Kris out for more gold leaf. Tell them to get double what they did last time, and cane sugar as well.”

While having two lovers and caring for them certainly turned Laurette’s days -- and his nights -- less leisurely, he wouldn’t want to change any of that. Hugo was a prize he had sought for so long, but while it was just the two of them, the stubborn vampire humanist with the time consuming hobby of tending to people’s medical needs, had never crossed that borderline of friendship.

It had taken for Hugo to find Charlie and properly fall for the human non-witch born to a witch family to finally burn that border to ashes and make Laurette -- Hugo’s closest Elven friend -- into more than just a friend. And Charlie herself was dazzling in her own ways, her tastes contrasting Laurette’s, sometimes to his frustration when she wouldn’t let him tame her messy bun into something a little more sculpted, sometimes to his delight when she kissed Laurette as if she needed him like air or water.

Yet, she too was following her own hobbyist pursuits, heaping her attention on old manuscripts in the University Library’s archives. Laurette had never grown to like the building, and imagining Charlie there did strike an odd chord with his sensibilities. He would have much rather built her a nicer library to consume her days. Ideally, however, Laurette’s human lover would see the benefit in focusing on creating words and books to hold them rather than tending to the writings of others. I hope I can convince her of that, he thought.

Gertrude took three slow breaths, which pulled Laurette from his thoughts. “Would it be possible to send one or two of the cakes to the library? Perhaps milady would enjoy sharing them with her colleagues.”

Laurette stirred the chocolate. Ah, ready to pour over the pomegranate cookies like hot wax over a bare thigh. “That is actually not a bad idea. I need to write a card to go with the cake if we are sending it to Charlie at work.” If I get her to finally move in here, I need to make sure she gets regular flower deliveries to the office too so she doesn’t think me complacent. In fact, I should just switch to regular flower deliveries for her, period. “I should try making blood pralines to send Hugo, lest my silly vampire feels I single Charlie out with my doting.” I would send him flowers as well, but he’ll complain his delicate patients cannot tolerate the pollen or some silliness.

You do dote on her a lot,” Gertrude pointed out.

Laurette turned to face the cookies with the melted chocolate, ready to do some drizzling. “Of course I do. The darling is human still, because Dr. Hugo has morals or some such thing. Get Dinner in here for some bloodletting and see if we have a suitable card while you prepare the cake for the library. The champagne and peach, I think.” The cookies looked appealing with the chocolate still warm and dripping off the edges. I’d like to have Charlie here to taste them so that I can taste the chocolate off her lips after. But this loneliness is what I get for picking lovers with hobbies. They called it work, of course, but that did little to change the facts. “We are packing some of these cookies as well, Gertrude.”

Of course we are,” the pixie said. Then she finally went to find a suitable card and pass along his orders to the others. Dinner, the Fae who served as Hugo’s blood source while the vampire was spending more time at Laurette’s house, could be heard groaning when Gertrude informed him his blood was wanted in the kitchen. Dinner was not the most voluntary of blood sources.

It was a little over a week till Valentine’s Day, and Laurette was uncertain it was enough time to finish his preparations. After all, his ultimate goal was to sway at least one of his lovers to end their silly living arrangements and move into his house, and everything just had to be perfect for that.

* * *

Arrow Struck (Elvenswood Tales 2)

Alexa Piper

All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2021 Alexa Piper


About the Author


Alexa Piper writes steamy romance that ranges from light to dark, from straight to queer. She’s also a coffee addict. She loves writing series, and her Fairview Chronicles follow a ragtag gang of supernaturals who try to make their city safer. Mostly. Her second series, Dusk & Dawn, explores banter and the trappings of a world in which Vampires, Werewolves, and the Fae live alongside humans. Elvenswood Tales is a new series that expands the Fairview universe.


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Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Secret Valentine by Cherry Christensen

 


Secret Series Book #2

Contemporary Romance

Date Published: January 27, 2020



Professor Hannah Wagganer spends her days teaching history, and her nights dating Glen Arbor’s new mail carrier, Jasper Morgan. Not only does he spark Hannah’s heart, but he has become best friends with her cat, Jingles.

As Hannah happily prepares for the church Valentine’s Day potluck and makes cards for local veterans, a snowstorm sends her plans, and her relationship with Jasper, on an unexpected detour. She seeks refuge from the storm at Jasper’s cottage, and finds him to be a warm and gracious host. But, at the same time, the spark is gone—when it comes to romance, he's turned as cold as the February wind. Doubt creeps in, leaving Hannah worried that she’ll end up spending another holiday alone.

Then, once again, unexpected blessings abound in town, when an anonymous donor pays to have the church pipes repaired, and other locals suddenly find solutions to their problems. Is it coincidental, or the work of a secret valentine?


Excerpt

Sorry I snapped at you. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea about Jasper and me.”

What’s the right idea?”

Hannah’s lips twisted to the side. “I don’t know. I’m crazy about him, and the way he loves Jingles, but…”

But what?”

What if he grows tired of small-town living? I’m not sure I could handle him leaving. I guess I want him to be my valentine forever, not just one predetermined day out of the year.”

Bree exhaled and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I’ve never seen you this serious about a guy before, especially one you’ve only known for a short time.” She lifted her gaze. “Are you positive he’s the one?”

My heart thinks so.”

Bree squealed and hugged her friend. “I call dibs on being maid of honor.”


About The Author

Cherry resides in the Mitten State with her husband of 19 years and a tabby cat named Caden. A true Michigander, she points at the palm of her right hand when telling people where she lives, drinks Vernors ginger ale when she’s under the weather, wears shorts and a sweatshirt at the same time, and measures distance in minutes, not miles. She also cheers for her favorite football team, the Michigan Wolverines. Go Blue!

A confirmed night owl, Cherry wholeheartedly agrees with whoever said, “I could be a morning person, if morning happened around noon.” It’s no surprise then she prefers to write in the evening. She’s a bit of a pantser writer, meaning she dreams up stories without using an outline, so every day is an exciting adventure as she waits to see where the characters lead her next!

A lifelong avid reader, Cherry turned to writing as a creative outlet. Drawing partly from her own experiences, and partly from her wild imagination, she weaves romantic tales with a smidgen of religion and a hint of mystery. Cherry’s first novel, The Fearful Heart, debuted in 2014, and she has never looked back. She continues to grow as an author, learning more about the writing craft with each book.


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The American Outsider by Homa Pourasgari

  "A charming read with characters who come to life on the page—and who live for a cause whose urgency shines through the story." ...