RECOMMENDED: Unraveled by Courtney Milan is .99c right now. This novel, better known in my head as “Smite's Story,” was a Sizzling Book Club Pick in January 2012, and RedHeadedGirl reviewed it and gave it an A:
What I loved about Miranda is her willingness to not dance around and be all like “oh, should I tell him about the threats and blackmail and try and keep my sordid past a secret?” No, she tells him, straight out. She won’t argue with him about stupid shit, because he “wins arguments by profession.” Also, she’s a scathing theater critic. He takes her to a play, and it’s TERRIBLE and she’s making snarky comments, and he apologizes for making a mess of an evening, and she says, “I was enjoying myself. It was that kind of awful.”
Given that Miranda has red hair and says things like this, I am taking that as a personal shout-out. PLEASE DO NOT DISABUSE ME OF THIS NOTION. It’s finals. Don’t be mean.
Smite Turner is renowned for his single-minded devotion to his duty as a magistrate. But behind his relentless focus lies not only a determination to do what is right, but the haunting secrets of his past—secrets that he is determined to hide, even if it means keeping everyone else at arm’s length. Until the day an irresistible woman shows up as a witness in his courtroom…
Miranda Darling isn’t in trouble…yet. But she’s close enough that when Turner threatens her with imprisonment if she puts one foot wrong, she knows she should run in the other direction. And yet no matter how forbidding the man seems on the outside, she can’t bring herself to leave. Instead, when he tries to push her away, she pushes right back—straight through his famous self-control, and into the heart of the passion that he has long hidden away
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As many people mentioned in the comments last week, the Last Hero Standing Boxed Set is .99. This is a boxed set of 11 stories from authors including Pamela Clare, Dianna Love, Cynthia Eden and many others, and all proceeds from this limited edition boxed set go towards Pamela Clare's medical bills as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. This boxed set is available for pre-order and will be released on 28 October 2014.
Enjoy 11 emotional stories – 2000 pages filled with all types of heroes from small town to international action-adventure who earn and protect those they love.
PLEASE NOTE: All proceeds go directly to the medical fund for box set author Pamela Clare, who is in the midst of her own battle with breast cancer.
New York Times Bestseller Dianna Love
Kiss the Enemy, a Slye Temp novel
“It seems with each book, this series gets better…”
New York Times Bestseller Cynthia Eden
First Taste of Darkness, a novella
“Plenty of passion to fan yourself but also enough love…to make you swoon.” –So Many Reads
New York Times Bestseller Elisabeth Naughton
First Exposure, an Aegis Security prequel novella
“This series is off to an explosive start.”
New York Times Bestseller Joan Swan
Sinful Deception, a Renegades novel
“Another fast-paced, action-packed, sexy Covert Affairs story!”
New York Times Bestseller Bonnie Vanak
Taken by the Alpha Wolf, a novella
“Highly recommend to anyone who likes steamy, sexy novels.”
USA Today Bestseller Pamela Clare
First Strike, an I-Team novella
“If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, you must read Pamela Clare!”
USA Today Bestseller Mary Buckham
Invisible Fears Book One: Kelly McAllister, an Invisible Recruits novel
“The powerful descriptive ability this author displays raises the bar for Urban Fantasy!”
USA Today Bestseller Adrienne Giordano
The Evasion, a Justifiable Cause Novella
“Adrienne Giordano delivers everything romantic suspense readers want…”
USA Today Bestseller Norah Wilson
Nightfall, A Vampire Romance Novel
“…an edge of your seat series.”
Award-Winning Author Stephanie Rowe
Ice, an Alaska Heat novel
“ICE delivers pulse-pounding chills and hot romance!”
Award-winning Author Tracey Devlyn
Latymer, a Nexus novella
“Powerful…and gripping.”
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Lost in Kakadu by Kendall Talbot is free right now at Amazon, and I am hoping for zero-matching from other vendors so I'm leaving the links active below. As of this moment, it's only free at Amazon, though. This is a contemporary romance that won the R*BY, the Romantic Book of the Year from Romance Writers of Australia. It has a 4.3 star average on Goodreads, but be ye warned: the heroine starts off with a lot of character growth ahead of her when she and the hero survive a plane crash in the jungle.
An action adventure novel set in the Australian jungle where two unlikely people prove just how attractive opposites can be…
It’s pretentious socialite Abigail Mulholland’s worst nightmare when her plane crashes into an ancient Australian wilderness. Things go from bad to downright hellish when rescuers never come. As she battles to survive in an environment that’s as brutal as it is beautiful, Abigail finds herself also fighting her unlikely attraction to Mackenzie — another survivor, and a much younger man.
Mackenzie Steel is devastated by his partner’s death in the crash, the only person with whom he shared his painful past. Now, as he confronts his own demons, he finds he has a new battle on his hands: his growing feelings for Abigail, a woman who’s as frustratingly naïve as she is funny.
Fate brought them together, but they’ll need more than luck to escape Kakadu alive. Could the letters of a dead man hold the key to their survival?
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Fair Game by Josh Lanyon is 99c. This book was in the 2011 DABWAHA, and is a contemporary m/m romance with a ton of positive reviews – it has a 4.1 star average. Readers who enjoyed it liked the amount of suspense and mystery in the story, and the second-chance storyline between the two heroes.
A crippling knee injury forced Elliot Mills to trade in his FBI badge for dusty chalkboards and bored college students. Now a history professor at Puget Sound university, the former agent has put his old life behind him—but it seems his old life isn't finished with him.
A young man has gone missing from campus—and as a favor to a family friend, Elliot agrees to do a little sniffing around. His investigations bring him face-to-face with his former lover, Tucker Lance, the special agent handling the case.
Things ended badly with Tucker, and neither man is ready to back down on the fight that drove them apart. But they have to figure out a way to move beyond their past and work together as more men go missing and Elliot becomes the target in a killer's obsessive game…
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Just a warning about Unravelled: This book does have a habit of re-writing your expectations of historicals… and of hero/heroine interactions in general. This was the 1st romance I’d read in which the author openly agreed that, yes, grown-ups should TALK to each other, instead of having silly miscommunication and pointless secrets since life has enough drama built in already. I had to hold my head in my hands so that my skull wouldn’t explode from all that wonderful smartness. Courtney Milan… guaranteed Good Book Hangover..
I’m so curious about the Kakadu book – free, won an award, and apparently the hero is gay and then…isn’t? WHAT? Interesting.
Also on sale this week at Amazon: Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts By Mark Klebeck, Michael Klebeck, and Jess Thomson. Which any Lauren Dane fan will tell you is apparently Mecca for the donut lover.. I stayed in a hotel next door and let me tell, the doughnuts, they are orgasmically good-especially after 6 hours of air/bus travel. She mentions Top Pot in a book, and I start salivating.
amazon.com/Top-Pot-Hand-Forged-Doughnuts-Secrets-ebook/dp/B005KGNMCC/?_bbid=15155&tag=bookbubemailc-20
Aw yeah, there’s nothing like a Courtney Milan sale!
Kakudo looks neat, as long as I can get the memory of Six Days, Seven Nights out of my head long enough to read it. Plus, you don’t see a lot of bisexual characters in romances, so yay!
Yup, Milan subverts some tropes in all three of the Turner brother books. I’m undecided whether Unraveled or Unveiled is my favorite, but they are both a total joy to read.
Saw this post, checked out Lost in Kakadu, grabbed it for free (yo!) and WOW! I think it’s super good, with a heroine who doesn’t magically morph from Bitch to Awesome, but slowly becomes a better person. I have to say I loved the beginning, not knowing if Mackenzie WAS gay or if this was one of them cheap-o, easily-avoided angsty messes…but it wasn’t a plot point! I didn’t have too much issue with (self proclaimed bi-sexual) Mack going from fully-committed long term gay relationship to a love affair with Abi because his sexuality, and really his whole relationship with Rodney (his BF), is told slowly with no real emphasis on how this Affects The Heroine or Their New LOVE – it’s nice that these two people were able to be themselves and not conform to the outlines of the usual romance formula (which I love…sometimes ;} ) Their love takes time, there’s tons of action and my kids didn’t eat dinner until 7:30 last night cuz there were crocs and storms and Mack almost died…I’m not done reading it yet, but Kakadu Nat Park is on now my bucket list and this Author is on my Keeper List.
I second the Kakadu book….could not put this down.