Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts

October 28, 2015

Excerpt & Giveaway! The Fall Up by Aly Martinez




I wanted to jump. 

He made me fall. 

As a celebrity, I lived in the public eye, but somewhere along the way, I’d lost myself in the spotlight. 

Until he found me.

Sam Rivers was a gorgeous, tattooed stranger who saved my life with nothing more than a simple conversation. 

But we were both standing on that bridge for a reason the night we met. The secrets of our pasts brought us together—and then tore us apart.

Could we find a reason to hold on as life constantly pulled us down? 

Or maybe there’s only one direction to go when two people fall in love at rock bottom—up.




“You’re overdoing it, Lev. I know this job isn’t exactly nine-to-five, but it’s not twenty-four-seven, either. You have to stop being Levee Williams all the time and just be you.”

“I know,” I responded.

I didn’t though. I felt like a robot parading around in a lost woman’s body.

Smile.

Pose.

Turn.

Toss in the occasional song.

Repeat.

What little time I did manage to carve out for myself was spent at various children’s hospitals across the country.

Smile.

Pose.

Turn.

Watch a child die.

Repeat. 

With every day that passed, the smile became less and less genuine, the pose more and more forced, and the turn took me further and further away from who I really was. 

My career was soaring while, personally, I was plummeting. Every single day felt like a terrifying free fall in no particular direction. I was stuck in the middle with no way up—or down.

“You remember that girl, right?” Henry asked, tucking a hair behind my ear.

I nodded.

I did remember her. She was fun and carefree. She loved going out and dancing at nightclubs until the very last song played. She slept until noon if she could. Then, fueled by coffee alone, she’d spend the day with a guitar strapped around her neck and a notepad at her side. She had a huge heart, but she knew her limitations.

Oh, I remembered that girl. I just couldn’t figure out how to get back to her.




Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side.

After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.




October 26, 2015

Release Day Review & Giveaway! Playing with Fire, Tangled in Texas #2 by Alison Bliss



Nothing ignites a fire like the perfect match…

Anna Weber is every inch the proper librarian--old-fashioned, conservatively dressed right down to her tightly clipped flaming red hair. She's just moved to a small Texas town, and is determined to spend time with her friend before she has to disappear. Relationships aren't easy for her. She knows too well what it means to be burned. And the last thing she ever wants to do is fall in love…

Especially not with a fireman who's hot enough to set the entire state of Texas on fire. 

Cowboy can't resist the fiery little librarian, and he's determined to make her his. Beneath that prim-and-proper exterior is a woman he very much wants to know--if she'd let him. She'll test his patience. His control. Hell, his very sanity. And for the first time, Cowboy wonders if he's found the one fire he can't control...




OMG, and here I thought Jake and Emily were crazy. "LOL"

Finally, the book we’ve all been dying to get our hands on!

We first met Cowboy in Rules of Protection. What we saw there was the player, the man who has a new girl in his bed every night. He’s charming, he’s funny and he’s the ultimate player. Love ‘em and leave ’em is his motto and he’s fine with that.

His reputation surely doesn’t bother him until he meets Anna.

She has a lot of secrets and hides behind old fashioned clothes, trying to keep everyone at a distance.

She’s smart and the total opposite of the women that have always trailed after the hot fireman but, when their worlds collide, it’s going to be an event that will change their lives forever. 

Saying that I loved this book is not enough. Alison has really outdone herself. 

It was nice to see all the characters together and how the connections between all of them have developed and changed. 

Emily is the same smartass we all know and love and she still keeps Jake on his toes while Cowboy and Anna figuring things out is a hilarious comedy of errors. 

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Anna and strange things happen wherever she goes. 

The suspense mixed with the humor and the romance made this novel very hard to put down. I was up all night reading and I don’t regret a thing.

Hard to believe this is Alison’s second book. Her writing is brilliant and she’s getting better with every novel she puts out there. 

She’s also a big tease. Really, Ali? Teasing us with Cowboy’s real name and leaving us hanging? Not nice. *pouting*

Another highly recommended must read. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next novel.

Happy Reading!!

P.S.- I saw this and though of Anna 





Join the release day party on Facebook HERE!!!!



Alison Bliss grew up in Small Town, Texas, but currently resides in the Midwest with her husband and two sons. With so much testosterone in her home, it's no wonder she writes "girl books." She believes the best way to know if someone is your soul mate is by canoeing with them because if you both make it back alive, it's obviously meant to be. Alison pens the type of books she loves to read most: fun, steamy love stories with heart, heat, laughter, and usually a cowboy or two. As she calls it, "Romance...with a sense of humor."



Are you interested in receiving ARCs, insider info about upcoming books, and participating in exclusive giveaways? If so, join the Pure Bliss Street Team by sending Alison an email at authoralisonbliss@hotmail.com




October 16, 2015

In The Spotlight! Excerpt & Guest Post: Going Against Type by Sharon Black


Some would say Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Regan has it all. Beautiful, smart, athletic, and a great job working as a journalist – in the almost exclusively male sports department. But Charlotte is not quite so sure as she seem. Recently split from her overbearing boyfriend, she escapes for weekends surfing in the Atlantic, and spends her free nights watching sports, roaring at the TV.

Derry Cullinane is a fashion writer, gossip columnist, and sophisticated man-about-town – The go-to guy for any woman seeking expert advice on what fabulous outfit to wear for any given occasion. He’s also tall, dark, good looking . . . and straight! So what’s the snag? He has a track record of dating glamorous, vain, and shallow women.

Charlie gets an opportunity to write a new column under the pen name Side Swipe, but soon is drawn into a war of words and wit with a rival paper’s columnist, The Squire, and their verbal fireworks get readers and editors talking. Yet neither Charlie nor Derry knows just who the opponent is.

When Charlotte and Derry meet at the Races, the attraction is instant. As their relationship develops, so much more proves at stake than protecting their alter egos. But a blunder puts Charlotte’s job in jeopardy just as Derry’s past makes front page, and Charlotte begins to doubt her feelings. When Side Swipe and The Squire are finally forced to reveal themselves, will they revert to type – or confound everyone’s expectations?



‘So, did you not enjoy the date?’
Charlotte sighed. 
‘Oh Helen, don’t get me wrong, he’s the perfect gentleman. You know, thoughtful and entertaining and completely relaxed with everyone. It was like Grand Central Station during the interval, but he also knew the director so we were invited back to the Green Room after the show. And I was completely out of my depth. 
Helen sipped her coffee.
‘You’re a big girl. Stop looking for problems. Was he flirting with other women?’
‘Other way around: they were flirting for Ireland. But some were definitely ex-girlfriends!’ She groaned. ‘I think the worst moment of the night, was when one of them asked me what was the last play I saw?’
‘What?’
‘You remember last Christmas when I took Anna and Daniel to Jack and the Beanstalk!’
Helen’s eyes lit up.
‘Did you tell her that?’
‘I figured, what the hell, be truthful.’
Helen giggled.
‘You know what it reminds me of? That scene from Pretty Woman, where Richard Gere brings Julia Roberts to the opera and the old lady asks her if she enjoyed it, and Julia Roberts says, ‘It was so good I almost peed my pants…’ Helen stopped as she caught the expression on Charlotte’s face. ‘Probably not the best example.’
‘Probably not,’ Charlotte agreed, then ruined the effect when she giggled too.


Hi Mikky, 
I’m so thrilled to be here today. I’d like to tell you and your readers a little about myself and my inspiration for my debut novel. 
I’m from Dublin, and except for some summer jobs abroad back in my student days, I never left! I took history and politics at college, and then did a postgraduate in journalism. That was during the 80s, when so many students like me were being told to stay in college for as long as possible, because there were no jobs in Ireland. A lot of my friends emigrated, at least for a number of years. 
I was a bit luckier. I managed to get work with a local Dublin paper first, and then I started working for a national newspaper. I married a fellow journalist (who worked for the opposing paper!!) and I took a substantial break from paid work, when my children were small, before returning to freelance work for a while. 
By the time I gathered my courage to write a novel, I knew I had to write about something I knew. 
Going Against Type is a romantic comedy, set in the world of Dublin-based national newspapers. It’s the story of rival newspaper columnists, who write under pen names, and unknowingly fall in love with their arch enemy: each other! They each have good reason to protect their alter egos. So their relationship develops, each blissfully unaware of whom the other is. Until they are forced to reveal themselves....
I always loved romantic comedies, and they are still my comfort read. I like them to be sharp and witty, and so I tried to write mine that way also. 
My inspiration was the 1940s Hollywood film, Woman of the Year, with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey. I’d be a big fan of both. Hepburn plays a high brow pundit, who rubbishes sport in one of her columns. Tracey is a sports columnist who leaps to defend his beloved sport and in turn, attacks Hepburn’s views, and the fun begins. In the film, they meet quite quickly and despite knowing who the other person is, they fall in love. 
In Going Against Type, I did something a little different. My heroine, Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Regan is the sports buff. At the beginning of the story, she is given a chance to write the new, anonymous sports column, Side Swipe. 
My hero, Derry Cullinane is a fashion writer and gossip columnist, The Squire for the rival paper. He’s sophisticated, man-about-town and a bit of a playboy. They fall in love, and that’s where the fun begins. 
The hardest part of the book to write was their columns. I had actually written columns for a short while when I was a journalist, but in the book I had to write two opposing viewpoints. That was difficult. They needed the most rewrites and editing, but it was worth it. 
What I ended up with was a huge contrast between their weekly attacks via their columns, and their real life relationship with each other. And of course it meant there was more at stake. 
I love Charlotte’s character. She’s a feisty, 20-something woman, working in an area still largely dominated by men. I know very little about sport, having never been sporty myself. 

But I admire people who are, and I wanted Charlotte to be very different from me. Because Charlotte’s a journalist, I’d hate to think I was writing bits of me into her. 
A lot of people are surprised that my very manly hero writes about fashion and celebrity gossip. Apart from wanting to shake things up, I wanted to write a strong male character, who is completely comfortable in his own skin, and his fabulous tailor made suits! He is fine with having a female boss and working with so many women. Actually, he likes that a lot! 
It sounds like a terrible cliché, but writing this book was a huge learning experience. I had written short stories down the years, and had some of them published. I’d started so many novels, but had never finished them. 
I think I knew the time was right. And I knew I had a good story. It made me determined. I became an author and I’m so grateful for that. And I’m proud of my debut.



Author Sharon Black grew up in Dublin. She studied history and politics at University College Dublin and then did post-graduate in journalism at Dublin City University.

She has worked for national newspapers, including The Evening Herald and The Irish Examiner.

She had short stories published in U Magazine and won the 2010 Dromineer Literary Festival short story competition. When she is not writing, she reads, walks and sees friends. She co-founded a local book club 14 years ago. She loves theatre, old Hollywood films, science fiction and good stand-up comedy.

Sharon lives in a Dublin coastal village, with her husband and their three children.


September 25, 2015

Audiobook Review & Giveaway! Walk With Me, Home #7 by Cardeno C.

Audio Banner - Walk With Me copy

Walk With Me - Audio Cover

Walk With Me: Home Collection
Written by: Cardeno C.
Narrated by: Alexander Collins
Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins 
Unabridged Audiobook 
Release Date:08-28-15 

When Eli Block steps into his parents’ living room and sees his childhood crush sitting on the couch, he starts a shameless campaign to seduce the young rabbi. Unfortunately, Seth Cohen barely remembers Eli and he resolutely shuts down all his advances. As a tenuous and then binding friendship forms between the two men, Eli must find a way to move past his unrequited love while still keeping his best friend in his life. Not an easy feat when the same person occupies both roles.

Professional, proper Seth is shocked by Eli’s brashness, overt sexuality, and easy defiance of societal norms. But he’s also drawn to the happy, funny, light-filled man. As their friendship deepens over the years, Seth watches Eli mature into a man he admires and respects. When Seth finds himself longing for what Eli had so easily offered, he has to decide whether he’s willing to veer from his safe life-plan to build a future with Eli.

*Walk With Me is set in the Home series where the books are linked by theme or world. They are independent and can be read in any order.

 AUDIBLE US Audible UK



Where do I begin?

Walk With Me is a story about friendship, about never giving up even when it feels like you’ve reached the end of the road.

Eli Block is a colorful character. At least that’s the way he appears in the beginning.

He’s all for telling it like it is and going after what he wants and his eyes are set on the elusive rabbi Seth Cohen, on whom he’s always had a crush.

What Eli never imagined was walking into a wall of rejection.

Seth is straight, always has been and, even if that weren’t true, Eli is way too young to consider accepting his advances. At least that’s what he’s trying to convince himself of.

But Eli is not ready to give up without a battle.

One of the things I liked about this book was how the story was told.

Since it covers a decade or so in the life of the characters, skipping through large periods of time was unavoidable BUT, it was expertly done so it seemed like no more than one day has passed from one chapter to the other.

There are a lot of funny situations involving Seth and wedding ceremonies and almost every new reunion happens after one such event. A clever way to take the reader’s mind off the fact that maybe years have passed between scenes – add humor to the story.

Another point was earned by the way the author still managed to show how the characters grow and evolve step by step along the way.

Especially Eli.

You’ll see him go from hormonal teenager to a responsible and respected adult who’s had his fair share of disappointments and has made mistakes that, in the end, helped him grow and evolve, and taught him a few important lessons.

One thing that remains a constant among all the changes are Eli’s feelings for Seth.

From almost strangers to best friends, the bond between Seth and Eli strengthens and builds one step at a time, going through every stage and preparing them for a day that might never come.

This was a really good novel I highly recommend. Cardeno C. sure knows how to tell a story.

And since this is supposed to be an audiobook review, I can only say, WOW! 

The book is funny if you read it but I was howling with laughter while listening to it. 

If you know me then you know how picky I am when it comes to narrators and audiobooks, and it takes a lot to get a positive review from me but this one totally deserves it. Alexander Collins is brilliant and you’ll love every second of it. 

Definitely a must read/listen to.



Cardeno C - Logo

Cardeno C. - CC to friends - is a hopeless romantic who wants to add a lot of happiness and a few "awwws" into a reader's day. Writing is a nice break from real life as a corporate type and volunteer work with gay rights organizations. Cardeno's stories range from sweet to intense, contemporary to paranormal, long to short, but they always include strong relationships and walks into the happily-ever- after sunset.

Cardeno's Home, Family, and Mates series have received awards from Love Romances and More Golden Roses, Rainbow Awards, the Goodreads M/M Romance Group, and various reviewers. But even more special to CC are heartfelt reactions from readers, like, "You bring joy and love and make it part of the every day."



September 15, 2015

Release Day Blitz! Screwed by Kendall Ryan


I have one rule: Don’t shit where you eat.

Several of the women in the condo complex I own would love some one-on-one playtime, and why wouldn’t they? I’m young, fit, attractive, and loaded. Not to mention I’m packing a sizable bulge below the belt. It’s a combination that drops panties on a regular basis. 

Yay, me, right?

But my cock, troublemaker that he is, has been confined to my trousers by my business partner. A concession I agreed to, and one that’s never been hard to enforce until Emery moves in across the hall. She’s smart, young, determined, and sexy as hell. I want a taste. I won’t stop until I’m buried deep inside the succulent new-in-town brunette.

After being warned about my past, she does her best to steer clear, but I’m about to show her that underneath it all, I’m a guy with a heart of gold and a cock of steel.

My name is Hayden Oliver, and this is my story.

SCREWED is standalone romantic comedy by New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Kendall Ryan.










Kendall Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance novels, including Hard to Love, Unravel Me, Resisting Her and When I Break.
She's a sassy, yet polite Midwestern girl with a deep love of books, and a slight addiction to lipgloss. She lives in Minneapolis with her adorable husband and two baby sons, and enjoys hiking, being active, and reading.
Visit her at: www.kendallryanbooks.com for the latest book news, and fun extras