Friday, May 17, 2013

Cover Reveal: Following Me by K.A. Linde

Synopsis

 
“I knew you were running the first time I saw you…"
 
Devon didn’t have a game plan when she decided to leave St. Louis on a Chicago-bound train for the summer. Just a reason. One she couldn’t share with anyone.
 
Not Hadley, her best friend from college, who lets her stay in the guest bedroom; no questions asked. Or Brennan, the bartender at the local restaurant they frequent, who she actively tries to avoid. Or Garrett, Hadley’s boyfriend, who befriends her when she has no one else to turn to.
 
"I just didn’t know what you were running from...."
 
Desperate to hide at all costs, Devon plunges into her new life in the city. Everyone around her starts to reveal sides of themselves Devon never expected. And just when she starts to get comfortable, her world flips upside down…
 
"...but I think all along you were running toward me."
 
4 lives.
 
All connected.
 
All with secrets that just keep following them.

 

Excerpt
 
Sweat beaded on Devon’s temple, and she wiped it off her forehead and out of her eyes. The party had been going all night, and it was nice to loosen up and get lost in the music and dancing. She hadn’t partied in so long, and she couldn’t resist when Amy had actually invited her out. Either she was getting over her hatred for the new girl, or Devon had just been there long enough that she wasn’t considered the new girl any longer.
 
People were packed into the club shoulder to shoulder, many even closer than that. The music was ear-splittingly loud. Crazy lights traversed the warehouse-sized room, and they alternated to strobes slowing everything down to slow motion. She hadn’t had much to drink, but she was dizzy with dehydration and the energy in the room. Her tank top was sticking to her back, and she had long since pulled her hair up off of her neck into a ponytail.
 
God, I need another drink, she thought.
 
Her eyes moved around the room taking in as much as she could from her vantage point. It really only ended up being the two feet encircling her. Amy had to be somewhere inside the building. How had she lost track of her?
Well, she knew how. There were too many damn people in the place. It was easy to lose track of one person, especially when that person was as short as Amy. Still, she should have done better. She didn’t like being alone in dark places. Whether she was surrounded by people or in a back alleyway at night, she was still alone.
 
She craned her head to look for her, but was having no luck. It felt like more and more people were being crushed into the space. How was this in line with fire code? Surely the place would be shut down soon.
 
Walking in the direction of the bar, Devon tried to find Amy in the crowd. Seriously it was getting harder and harder to maneuver through. She was literally having to elbow people out of the way. This wasn’t okay, and it wasn’t fun. They shouldn’t let any more people in. Things could get out of control.
Devon looked up over the heads of people in front of her and sighed. It felt like she was never going to reach the bar, and there was a huge line anyway. She thought maybe the bathroom would be a better alternative…at least there she would have some privacy.
 
She turned to walk the other direction and slammed right into a meaty guy in front of her, who glared at her as she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. Someone stepped on her hand as she tried to get up. Devon swore and hissed pulling her hand away from the ground where someone else could do the same thing. She stood as best she could, cradling her aching hand. It wasn’t easy pushing through people with one hand pressed between her breasts to keep from someone else smashing into it. All it did was cause people to unknowingly smash into other parts of her. She hadn’t made it more than a few feet toward the bathroom, and she had already been elbowed in the arm, gotten her foot stepped on, and been drunkenly body slammed knocking the breath out of her. The club was getting dangerous.
 
A space opened in the crowd, and she took advantage, rushing forward through the throng of people. It took her closer to the bathroom but not close enough. Then she felt it. Eyes on the back of her head. She didn’t even know how it was possible. There were hundreds of people in the place. No one could be focusing that intently on her, but she could swear that someone was watching her.


 
 
 
 About The Author

K.A. Linde graduated with her Masters in political science from the University of Georgia in 2012. She also has a bachelors in political science and philosophy. She wrote the Avoiding Series while struggling through advanced statistical modeling and writing her thesis. She enjoys dancing and writing novels that keep you guessing until the very end.
 
She currently resides in Georgia with her boyfriend and two puppies, Lucy and Riker.
 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Promo Tour and Giveaway: Shatter by Rachel Van Dyken


Synopsis

Sometimes the only way to heal... is to shatter.


Rock star Alec Daniels has it all. Love, fame, money... But being in the limelight isn't all it’s cracked up to be, and after one bad choice comes back to haunt him he is left picking up the pieces of his carefully constructed life. Now he faces the toughest decision of his life:

Deal with his mistake like a man, or dive back into the dark hole of depression, drugs, and denial that have been his comfort for so long.

One wrong move could destroy everything. His girlfriend, his family, and his future.


Excerpt

Her eyes widened a bit when I purposefully flexed my arm and then she looked down, a beautiful pink blush staining her cheeks. “Remember how I feel about your blushing?” I whispered, trying with very ounce of self-control I possessed, not to make a complete fool of myself and toss her over my shoulder cave-man style.

“Is it the same way you felt last night about—”

“—And we’re done.” My brother Demetri cleared his throat, appearing out of nowhere. “Can a person un-hear something? Anyone? Anyone?” He shook his head as if that would make everything go away and cursed. “Seriously, I’m almost embarrassed for the sand.”

“Why the hell would you be embarrassed for the sand?” I rolled my eyes and pulled Nat into my embrace, trailing my hands down her arms. I couldn’t get enough of her. Not by a long shot. Even touching her was enough to send my control out the window. Ha, she thought I had control. No. What I had was a lot of guilt that made me feel the need to control every damn situation until I thought I was going to shatter.

“Because you guys were all…” Demetri put his hands in the air and scowled. “Fornicating.”

“Fornicating?” I laughed, a bit thrown off that he not only knew a four-syllable word but the meaning behind it. “How the hell does one fornicate without—”

“—Okay, sorry to break this weird love triangle up…” Jaymeson stepped beside Nat and me. “But we’re supposed to go over to the bonfire and pretend to be bonding.” Jaymeson was an action star from the UK and one of our good friends. At least he was someone I could count on during all of the chaos that was our lives. I was actually relieved when they asked him to be part of the show. Against popular opinion, he was actually a really clean-cut guy. He never did drugs, never drank, and spent every Easter with his ninety-year-old grandma. Sometimes I hated that he made it look so easy. Fame wasn’t a big deal to him. Granted, he also slept with anything that looked cross-eyed at him, but whatever. He claimed it was because Americans were easy.

“Ah, reality TV at its finest,” I muttered back to him.

“Cheers.” Jaymeson winked at Nat and then slapped my ass. I lunged for him but Nat’s hand slipped to where Jaymeson’s hand had been, making me totally lose my train of thought. I sighed and kissed Nat gently across the lips. Her wet tongue licked my bottom lip and then slipped into my mouth. I wanted to throw her onto the ground.

“And we’ve come full circle.” Demetri cleared his throat. “Back to fornicating.”

I groaned against Nat’s mouth and cursed. “Do you really have nothing better to do than sit here and watch us fornicate? Really, Demetri? Is life that boring without drugs?”

Because of me, my brother had nearly killed himself last year and was finally out of rehab. I couldn’t take credit for pulling him out of his funk — nope, that honor went to Alyssa. She challenged him enough to grow a pair and put on his big boy pants.

Demetri’s wide smile did nothing for my mood. He pulled out a piece of taffy and winked. “Just getting you back for walking in on me and Alyssa.”

It’s possible I’d been ruining my brother’s mojo purposefully just to piss him off. I’d happily take that to my grave.

“Dude, you were moving slower than a snail.” I smirked and made a slow crawling gesture with my hands.

Laughter bubbled out of Nat. “So true.”

Demetri cursed. “If a snail is a kick-ass-ninja-track-athlete, then yeah. I was moving just like that.”

“Did he just compare himself to a ninja snail?” A female voice said from behind us. We all turned. Alyssa, Demetri’s’ girlfriend, was shaking her head and laughing. “Wow, wonders never cease. What were you yesterday, Demetri? A turtle, was it?”

“A turtle?” I repeated. All eyes turned to Demetri.

My brother’s eyes hooded with desire. “You can ride my shell anytime, you—”

“Children!” Jaymeson yelled from the bonfire. “If you’re all done getting in each other’s pants, we’ve got some fake filming to do for the future leaders of America!”

“Truer words have never been said.” Nat nodded solemnly.

“What we do, we do for our country,” I agreed as I grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. “Later though?”

She winked. “Oh, I promise.”

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Going Under by S. Walden




Synopsis
 
 Brooke Wright has only two goals her senior year at Charity Run High School: stay out of trouble and learn to forgive herself for the past. Forgiveness proves elusive, and trouble finds her anyway when she discovers a secret club at school connected to the death of her best friend. She learns that swim team members participate in a “Fantasy Slut League,” scoring points for their sexual acts with unsuspecting girls.

Brooke, wracked with guilt over her friend’s death, decides to infiltrate the league by becoming one of the “unsuspecting girls,” and exact revenge on the boys who stole away her best friend. An unexpected romance complicates her plans, and her dogged pursuit of justice turns her reckless as she underestimates just how far the boys will go to keep their sex club a secret.

(This is a New Adult fiction book with mature themes. It contains graphic sex and language and a description of sexual violence.)

 
 
Our Review
5 Stars given by Heather
      
SPOILER: WARNING: Very graphic rape scene in this book.
      
"You think you have it all planned out. But something in you always surprises you."
      
Wow. Going Under is a great read it was intense, raw and real. It kept me on my toes wondering what was going to happen.
      
"The heart wants what the heart wants."
      
Brooklyn is struggling to deal with her best friend Beth's suicide. She feels responsible for her death. If only she wouldn't have slept with Beth's boyfriend and if she would have gone to the party with Beth she would still be alive.
She is now trying to learn how to forgive herself so she can let go of the guilt. She has one mission at school this year, stay out of trouble and get revenge on Cal the guy responsible for Beth's death.
Brooklyn realizes that there is a secret sex club at school, and is determined to find out which guys are in it. So she can expose everyone involved and make them pay for their crimes. She decides the only way to expose them is to get Cal to force himself on her. She later realizes that isn't a smart move and decides to just expose the sex club. The one thing Brooke underestimates is the price these guys are willing to go to keep it a secret. Does she pay the ultimate price to expose them?
 
"Fuck the world. Do what you feel is right, and you have every right to love whomever you want."
      
The last thing that Brooke expected in her journey was to forgive herself and to fall in love. Does she learn to live with her experience? Can she forgive Ryan and let him be in her life? I highly recommend this book!
 
All About Ryan
 
“Ryan, why are you so gorgeous and strange?”



My sister told me she laughed her butt off at that part in the book—the part where Brooke gets drunk. I wanted it to be silly and lighthearted to take away from some of the heaviness in the novel. I mean, good grief. If the entire novel were like Chapter 20, who on earth would read it??
 
But back to gorgeous and strange Ryan. It’s official. The ladies love him, and many of you were a little mad you didn’t get more of him in the book. In my defense, I will say that Going Under was not meant to be primarily a romance. In fact, I purposely wrote the romance as a side item. This did not make for completely happy fans. You were semi-happy, but not all-the-way happy. ☺ So here’s me making it up to you. I’m giving you a little inside information on our leading man that hopefully will allow you to forgive me in some way for not featuring him on every page. xo
 
Full name: Ryan James Foster
Born: September 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina at WakeMed
Astrological Sign: Libra
Stats: 6’2”; 180 lbs; brown hair; blue eyes
Favorite food: Steak fajitas
Favorite music: The Smashing Pumpkins, specifically their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album. (His older cousin turned him on to ‘90s alternative rock.)
Favorite TV show: Game of Thrones
Activities: surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding (he’s really hot when he snowboards), swimming, making out with Brooke
Favorite book: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Favorite movie: Snatch (Hey, what do you want me to say?)
College degree: B.S. Business Finance
Current job: Finance manager for a chain of local skateboard and skateboard supplies stores in Chapel Hill, NC
 
Idiotic move in college: Hosted a “hurricane party” at a friend’s place half a mile from the beach. These are popular parties during hurricane season in Wilmington, NC, and they really piss off the local authorities. No one was hurt, but a lot of college students got wasted and then naked. Ryan only got partially naked.
 
Biggest regret about Brooke: Not getting out of the car. He drove to NC State to see Brooke her freshmen year. He sat in the car in front of her dorm. He waited for hours and finally saw her walking towards the dorm entrance. And he wanted to go to her, but he was afraid. So he watched her swipe her key card, open the door, and disappear from view. He wouldn’t see her again for two years.
 
Sweetest Moment: Marrying Brooke. Simple. No fuss. A courthouse. The important people. A beautiful woman in a little white dress. Saying “I do.” And the next installment in their great big adventure.
 
Random Stuff:
~Broke his arm three times when he was in elementary school and middle school.
~Had braces twice: once in fourth grade and then again in seventh because he never wore his retainer.
~Played center forward in soccer until he messed up his knee.
~Pledged a fraternity in college and then quit.
~Turned down a make-out session with a girl in his freshmen composition class. Told her he was already committed to someone else.
~Became inseparable friends with Alyssa from philosophy. She was the only one who could stomach his incessant talk about Brooke.
~Wears one contact in his right eye to give him monovision (one eye sees distance and one eye reads up close).
~Does pushups every day.
~Tried vegetarianism for a week at the insistence of his friend, Charlie. Missed his steak fajitas too much to commit for life.
~Wants to give Brooke babies as soon as possible.
 
Okay fans. If that didn’t placate you, I will be collecting questions about Ryan during the tour that I will answer at the end. You have to email me at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com to ask a question (please limit them to two), and I will post all the questions and answers by June 9. Sound good?
 
 
 
About The Author
 
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. Her dreams include raising chickens and owning and operating a beachside inn on the Gulf Coast (chickens included). 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 blog at http://swaldenauthor.blogspot.com where you can get up-to-date information on her current projects.
 
 
 
 

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