Berkley Bookmas {+ Giveaway}

It is the season for fun and giving so I’m so excited to participate in Berkley Bookmas and I’m delighted to be hosting MARRY IN SCANDAL by Anne Gracie here today at Thoughts in Progress.

Berkley Bookmas is chock full of exclusive content from authors like exclusive excerpts, deleted scenes, author recipes and more! Check out the calendar of events below.

Now join me for an excerpt from this tantalizing book.

Marry In Scandal ~ Anne Gracie

London, 1818

“I have secured a duke for the opera tonight,” Agatha, Lady Salter announced with an air of triumph. Bone thin and immensely elegant, her steely silvery hair intricately coiled, piled high and bound into a kind of turban, she fingered her lorgnette with long fingers and eyed her three nieces with a critical gaze.

Lily Rutherford, Lady Salter’s youngest niece, swallowed. She sat with her sister Rose on the chaise longue facing the old lady. George, technically a great-niece rather than a niece, lounged casually on the armrest of a nearby chair.

“Do dukes sing?” Rose idly twirled her fan. “I had no idea.”

“Don’t be facetious, Rose,” Aunt Agatha snapped. “You know very well why I have arranged this opportunity—it’s for you in particular.” She added, “As well, he is bringing two friends, one of whom—”

She broke off, her eyes narrowed. Lily tensed as the old lady raised her lorgnette. It was a warm day and Lily’s thighs were sticking together, but she didn’t dare move. Aunt Agatha despised fidgeting.

But her gaze came to rest meaningfully on George, who gave the elderly dowager a bland smile in return and stayed where she was, one leg swinging in an unladylike manner.

“Georgiana! Are you wearing breeches under that habit?”

George shrugged, entirely unrepentant. “We’re just back from our morning ride.”

The old lady closed her eyes in a ‘heaven-help-me’ expression, muttered something under her breath, took a deep breath and continued, “As I said, the duke is bringing two of his friends, and one of them might be interested in you, Georgiana—though not if you sit like that! Or wear breeches. No gentleman of taste—”

“And one of them might be interested in Lily.” Rose smiled warmly at her sister.

Aunt Agatha glanced at Lily. “Perhaps,” she said dismissively. She raised her lorgnette and raked it critically over the person of her youngest niece.

Lily, knowing what was coming, sucked in her stomach and held her breath. But it did no good.

“I see you have failed to follow my advice about the diet that was so effective for Lord Byron, Lily. You’re as fat as ever.”

“Lily isn’t fat,” Rose flashed angrily. “She’s lovely and rounded and cuddly. But not fat!”

“And besides, she did try that dreadful diet,” George said. “For two whole weeks and it made her quite sick for no result. Potatoes drenched in vinegar? Ghastly.”

“A small sacrifice for the sake of beauty,” Aunt Agatha said with all the complacence of a woman who had never had to diet in her life.

“Lily is beautiful as she is.” Rose squeezed her sister’s hand comfortingly. “We all think so.”

Aunt Agatha snorted.

“Better to be sweet-natured and cuddly than a nasty, well-dressed skeleton.” George gave a meaningful glance at Aunt Agatha.

Lily tried not to squirm. She hated this, hated people quarreling over her, hated it when Aunt Agatha examined her through her horrid lorgnette—as she did every time she visited. Under that cold, merciless gaze, Lily always felt like a worm—a fat, unattractive, stupid worm. And she couldn’t bear another evening of it.

“I’m sorry but I can’t come to the opera tonight,” she found herself saying. “I have a—a previous engagement.”

There was a short, shocked silence. Rose and George blinked and tried to conceal their surprise.

Aunt Agatha’s gaze, her eyes horribly enlarged through the lens of her weapon of choice, bored into Lily. “What did you say, gel?”

Lily swallowed but held her ground. “I said, I have a prior engagement.” She pressed her lips together. She was hopeless at arguing;, she always gave in eventually, so it was better to say nothing.

Aunt Agatha gripped her carved ebony stick in a bony grasp and stamped it on the floor. The floor being covered by a thick Turkish rug, the effect was rather lost. “Did you not understand me, you stupid gel? A duke and two of his friends have agreed to join our party at the opera. A duke! And two other eligible gentlemen. And you say you can’t come? What nonsense! Of course you will come!”

Lily eased her fingers out of her sister’s grasp. Now her hands were sweaty, as well as her thighs. She wiped them surreptitiously on her skirt and said with as much dignity as she could muster, “I was under the impression you had issued an invitation, Aunt Agatha, not an order.”

On to the giveaway. The winner will receive: one $100 Visa gift card, and a book/galley/bound manuscript by each of the authors participating. You can enter by clicking HERE!

For next week’s fun, head to one of the following blogs on 12/11:

·         My Friend Amy

·         The Romance Studio

·         Booked & Loaded

·         Vampire Book Club

·         Coffee and Characters

·         Rantings of a Reading Addict

·         Diva Does 4 Good

·         Just Another Book Bitch

·         The Good, the Bad and the Unread

·         Literary Escapism

·         Reviews by Reds

·         3 Degrees of Fiction Book Blog

·         Novel Grounds

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed the excerpt and will check out the upcoming blogs in the Bookmas. Are you adding books to your Christmas list this year for giving (and receiving)?

Murder on the Lake of Fire {+ Giveaway}

Murder on the Lake of Fire
Mikel J. Wilson
 
(Mourning Dove Mysteries, #1)
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: December 1st 2017
Genres: LGBTQ+, Mystery, Romance

At twenty-three and with a notorious case under his belt, Emory Rome has already garnered fame as a talented special agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. His career is leapfrogging over his colleagues, but the jumping stops when he’s assigned a case he fought to avoid – to investigate an eerie murder in the Smoky Mountain hometown he had abandoned. This mysterious case of a dead teen ice-skater once destined for the pros is just the beginning. In a small town bursting with envious friends and foes, Rome’s own secrets lie just below the surface. The rush to find the murderer before he strikes again pits Rome against artful private investigator, Jeff Woodard. The PI is handsome and smart, seducing Rome and forcing him to confront childhood demons, but Woodard has secrets of his own. He might just be the killer Rome is seeking.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

The author has graciously answered a question about his writing for me. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Mikel as he shared his thoughts. Welcome, Mikel.

Your story is set in the Great Smoky Mountains. How did you go about doing research for your story and setting?

Murder on the Lake of Fire is set in the Smoky Mountains region of Tennessee. I’ve lived in California since I was 19, so setting my book more than 2,000 miles away presented a challenge. I couldn’t just look out my window or take a walk to inspire my descriptions. How would I convince my readers that my characters were actually interacting with the setting if I couldn’t describe it accurately? If you get one detail wrong with the setting in your book, you risk losing the reader’s trust in your ability to tell a story. To keep that trust intact, I used a combination of techniques for ensuring my setting’s accuracy: memory, research and experience (as a verb, not a noun).

I did grow up in Tennessee, and I visited the Smoky Mountains a handful of times, but I was not familiar enough with the area to write convincingly about it just from memory. Even if I had a photographic memory, much could’ve changed over the years to make my description obsolete. After writing down all the sensory details I could remember about the Smoky Mountains and Knoxville, the secondary location in the book, I researched the setting online.

I looked at countless pictures and videos, and I used Google Earth to virtually roam the streets. I read about the area’s demographics and history because having a character remark about an endemic feature, or weaving it into the story, can add some nice depth to your setting. I also realized I needed to research the region’s flora and fauna. I wrote coyotes into one scene, but long after I left that passage behind, I wondered, “Are there coyotes in the Smoky Mountains?” Thankfully, there are, but imagine if I had written that and there weren’t!

To learn what people were actually doing in the area I read local news and community calendar postings. Because this book is the first in a series, I want to keep abreast of current events in the area, so I also subscribed to the Visit Knoxville newsletter and added the Smoky Mountains, Knoxville and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to my Google news feed.

Online research can get you pretty close to familiar with your setting, but I don’t think anything can replace actually experiencing it. I made a special trip to Knoxville and stayed a few days in the Smoky Mountains, and I took gigs of pictures and a pad full of notes about sensory data and specific locations my characters might visit. I even found the perfect spot for Mourning Dove Investigations, the PI firm in the book.

I realize traveling to wherever a book is set is not always an option, but I do believe it helps – walking the streets the characters will walk, taking in the sounds and smells, and finding places they might frequent. The more familiar an author is with a setting, the better he can describe it and the more convinced readers will be that the characters are really there.

Mikel, thanks for this insight into your book. The Smoky Mountains are a beautiful area and would be an amazing place to live.

Mystery and science fiction author Mikel J. Wilson received widespread critical praise for his debut novel, Sedona: The Lost Vortex, a science fiction book based on the Northern Arizona town’s legends of energy vortexes and dimensional travel. Wilson now draws on his Southern roots for the Mourning Dove Mysteries, a series of novels featuring bizarre murders in the Smoky Mountains region of Tennessee. 

Murder on the Lake of Fire, the first novel in the Mourning Dove Mysteries series, will be available December 1, 2017.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

GIVEAWAY!

 
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Heroes of Westhorpe Ridge {+ Giveaway}

Heroes of Westhorpe Ridge

Holiday Series Boxed Set

By Kryssie Fortune
 

Kryssie is giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate and 3 ebooks of Submission, Secrets, and the Soldier to lucky winners during the tour. Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter. Remember there is a chance to enter every day, so please follow us along on the tour. You may find the tour locations here.   

About the Boxed Set: Kryssie Fortune's holiday series, Heroes of Westhorpe Ridge, is now available in a convenient e-boxed set!

Marriage, Mobsters, and the Marine: Abigail Montgomery, a small town schoolteacher with zero self-confidence, dreams of the Dickensian Christmas her family never enjoyed. Each month she attends a masked BDSM club, but her next visit will be her last. If she doesn’t marry within the next year, her brother won’t inherit Montgomery Hall. Desperate, she advertises for a husband. Jared Armstrong, a former Marine sharpshooter and occasional Dom needs $125,000 to get his family out of a hole. His solution--to marry Abigail Montgomery for her money. His only regret is his wife won’t accept his spanking lifestyle. Gradually, Abigail comes to dream of making their marriage real, but she promised Jared a divorce two years after their wedding. Can they share some Christmas magic as their relationship faces extortion threats, a kidnapping, and an attempted murder? Or will Jared break her heart when he walks away?
 

 
Sex, Scandal, and the Sheriff: Jasmine Stewart (Jazz to her friends) falls for the blond stranger when he spanks and seduces her at a Washington soiree. Later, when she discovers her flatmate is trying to draw her into a spy ring, she goes to the authorities. The ensuing publicity costs her her job, her security, and her future. Starting over in Westhorpe Ridge is her only option. Sean Mathews, former SEAL and Westhorpe Ridge’s sheriff, can’t forget the woman he spanked when he visited Washington, but he thinks she’s a spy. When she turns up in Westhorpe Ridge, he tries everything to make her leave town. Despite their misunderstandings, though, they can’t keep their hands off each other. As Year’s Eve looms, the spy ring resurfaces. Jazz will need all of Sean’s SEAL prowess to survive. But because his wounded leg cost him his speed in the water, will it be enough?
 

 
Desire, Deceit, and the Doctor: Twelve years ago, Mandy Devlin moved away from her friends and family--under threat. If she returned in the next ten years or told anyone who fathered her baby, her boyfriend’s great-aunt would bankrupt her family. She’s a single mom who dreams of her lost love and a good spanking. When she’s finally free to return to Westhorpe Ridge, the last person she expects to see is Adam--the man she loved and lost so long ago. Dr. Adam Montgomery doesn’t know he has a son. Thanks to his great-aunt’s will, he has nine months to find a bride or he loses Montgomery Hall and the fifteen million dollars she left him. Although he seduces Mandy on his first night home, he still believes she betrayed him twelve years ago. No way would he marry a woman like her. As Valentine’s Day looms, someone tries to kill Mandy. Is Adam trying to get rid of her? Or can Mandy trust him to protect them? Note: All of the books in this set were previously released as single titles.

Buy Links: 

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Loose id | Kobo | B&N  

Excerpt from Marriage, Mobsters, and the Marine: 

Abigail gazed Jared’s his face, her eyes still awash with tears. “Okay, but I expect you to tell me what’s going on. Who were those men? And why did they destroy your truck?”

He slid out from under her, brought a sponge, and gently wiped her face. Once he’d dried her cheeks, he pulled her back onto his knee. “I need to tell you about those personal reasons I mentioned when I accepted your proposal.”

Abigail didn’t speak, just rested her head on his shoulder and snuggled closer. He liked the way seemed ready to move forward. “My cousin’s life is a mess. A few years ago she married a small-time crook with a bad gambling habit, but she didn’t deserve to watch the mob murder him over his debts. She’s agreed to testify against them and go into the witness-protection program. The mob still wants their money, and they threatened to go after her mom and dad, always assuming they could find them. My aunt and uncle are off exploring the Amazon basin or something.”

Abigail listened intently. When he paused for breath, she shook her head. “The mob? The Amazon basin? It sounds like B-movie plot to me. Just throw in a few killer tomatoes.”

Jared held her tight against his chest. “The phone call earlier was from my cousin. Since the mob can’t find her parents, they’ve decided to come after me. Destroying my truck was a warning. Here’s the thing… You know I married you because I needed money. I wanted pay them off and keep my unsuspecting family safe, but I’ll be damned if I’ll pay protection money to keep them away from me. They’re parasites who won’t leave until they’ve taken everything I hold dear. I’m only sorry I sucked you into my mess.”

She hiccupped against his shoulder. “So what happens now?”

He almost stroked her wire-wool hair but thought better of it. “I don’t suppose you’d take a month’s holiday somewhere?”

She sat up, her eyes gleaming with anger. “No way will I abandon my class. We’ve got Christmas projects to finish and the nativity to rehearse. I try to make everything special for them, with it being their last year before they move on to junior high. I’ve already bought them all individual Christmas presents. In between that, we’ll be measuring daylight hours and checking the shadows at midday. Hopefully our solstice project will help them get their heads around shortening days.”

He felt ready to argue but said nothing.

About the Author: 

Kryssie Fortune writes the sort of hot sexy books she loves to read. If she can sneak a dragon into her paranormal books she will. Her paranormal heroes are muscular werewolves, arrogant Fae, or BDSM loving dragons.  Kryssie likes her contemporary heroes ex-military and dominant. Her heroines are kick ass females who can hold their own against whatever life - or Kryssie - throws at them. Kryssie's pet hates are unhappy endings, and a series that end on a cliff hanger.

Her books are all stand alone even when part of series. Plot always comes before sex, but when her heroines and heroes get together, the sex is explosive and explicit. One review called it downright sensual.

Kryssie's Social Links:

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