When a tragic accident leaves Rhane Evans -- lead vocalist for the rock band Fate's Crazy -- permanently unable to speak above a whisper and kills the love of her life, she moves across the state to pick up the pieces. Shattered, Rhane struggles to understand what happened the night of the accident, an accident everyone blames her for, even though she wasn't driving the car.
Enter Ian Callahan. He's the one person who may have a more tumultuous past than Rhane. Though they try hard to deny the sizzling attraction between them, it proves nearly impossible. When Ian's troubled past threatens to tear them apart, they begin to believe happiness isn't in their cards.
Because Fate's Crazy that way...
Author Bio
I read, I write, I run 1/2 marathons for fun.
Ten things about me: 1. I'm an only child. 2. I love dogs! 3. I was born in Iowa City, Iowa and lived in Iowa my whole life until January 2007. 4. I worked as a professional psychic reader for 2 years. 5. I'm a Pisces Sun, Leo Moon with Aquarius rising. 6. I've written 5 books and am in the process of brainstorming a 6th. 7. I don't look or act my age! 8. I ran my first 1/2 marathon at age 50. 9. I love 80's hair band music. 10. My day job is as a claims payment analyst for one of Fortune 500 Magazine's "Top 100 places in America to work."
Click on the banner for a complete Tour stop schedule
~Synopsis~
Can a guilty conscience keep wounds from healing?
Fine arts major, Candace Parker, grew up with a mother who thinks image is everything, and her daughter's perfection will never be good enough. About to graduate college and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, Candace decides it's time to let go and have a little fun. But fun is short-lived when a brutal attack leaves her completely shattered.
The memories that consume and torment Candace are starting to destroy her when she meets Ryan Campbell, a successful bar owner. He feels connected and tries to show her that hope is worth fighting for. But is Ryan harboring his own demons? As walls slowly begin to chip away, the secrets that are held within start to become painful burdens.
Candace, a dance major at UW, was trying to be more carefree and not fit the perfect mold that her parents so desperately wanted for her to fit into. Candace decides to open herself up and go with the flow and see where things lead. She even gets a tattoo to go with this change.
Feeling pressure from her mother, Candace decides to go against her instincts and give Jack, the country club boy her mother so desperately wants for her to go out with, a chance. Little did she know that it would turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life. After being brutally raped and beaten she is so battered both physically and emotionally that she withdrawals from everything and everyone. Feeling responsible and unable to cope with the embarrassment of people knowing she becomes a shell of a person, slowing fading away. The only person that she trust is her best friend Jase. He is her rock. He takes care of her when she is not able to take care of herself. Too embarrassed and prideful to let people find out she even stops talking to her best friend and roommate Kimber, who was like a sister to her. She is slowly losing everything she was.
"I sit here, on the bottom of the shower, and everything I know about myself, everything I love, everything I am begins to fade away."
Ryan, the owner of the bar Blur, wants nothing more than to make Candace comfortable around him. Their friendship and eventually relationship surprisingly come easy but Candace is afraid to fully let her guards down. Ryan is patient and thoughtful with Candace. He wants nothing more than to be her rock.
"I understand you and Jase, but I know how I feel about you." He takes a moment before softly saying , "I want you to need me more than him." Feeling the need to defend myself, I say, "He's all I've ever had." Taking my hand in his, he places it against his chest when he tells me, "You have me too." "Cling to me. Love me enough to need me."
But will an omission destroy everything? Leaving Candace more broken to pick up the pieces alone?
Fading deals with a very emotionally strong subject matter. It shows what happens to a person after such an event takes place. It was done in a very tasteful and real way. Not everyone deals with things the in the same way. Although, I wish she would have done things differently, we all must find our own path and cope our own way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story.
Ashton Taylor. Six foot one, dark hair, chiseled jaw, riveting hazel eyes, and a body cut in all the right places. He's a natural. Things just come easy to him. He's used to getting everything he wants, excelling at everything he does. The grades, the recognition, the beautiful women.
His path was set. A girl, a full to UCLA, and a bright future. To others, his life seemed perfect. But, things are never what they seem, and life, well, at any moment, something or someone can come along and turn it upside down.
That something...the death of his father.
That someone...Cara Hayward. The girl with the hypnotic eyes, melodic voice, enchanting smile, and lips sent straight from heaven.
The girl who doesn't want to be seen.
So what happens when a guy who everything comes easy to, meets a girl who doesn't come easy? Can he crawl through all the broken glass to find her? Will the girl he discovers deep down be able to see past his perfect exterior?
Together, do they have the power to heal one another? Or, could the very thing that brings them together, be the one thing that tears them apart?
** Lovely is a New Adult Romance with strong language and mature sexual content.
~Author Bio~
Beth Michele is a wife, a mom, an author and a lover of all things chocolate, well, anything sweet really. While stuffing chocolate in her face, she enjoys reading young adult and new adult novels furiously, and spending time with her husband and two adorable children who keep her on her painted toes. Those same children who inspire her to tell silly stories that cause hysterical giggles to tumble from their bellies. Beth is a hopeless romantic and a happily ever after fanatic who loves to write about love.
Growing up in a small town Wisconsin, Carly Turner couldn't wait to escape when she graduated high school. Now, she's living the life in New York City, even if she isn't seeing her name in lights like she used to dream about at night. She's living paycheck-to-paycheck, working behind the scenes in small theaters off Broadway. When there's an equipment malfunction the week before opening night, Carly makes a call that winds up changing everything.
Life in the city isn't all it's cracked up to be. While she feels like she's getting closer to making the move from behind the scenes to center stage, she misses being surrounded by people who understand the quirks that come from living in a town of five thousand people. That, and the fact that he's sexy as sin, make Adam everything she feels like she's missing.
The only problem? He's her best friend's kid brother...
Adam Sanders wants to settle down, find a good woman and start a family like he sees so many of his friends doing. But how is he supposed to meet Ms. Right when he's constantly on the road for work? When he's sent to New York to handle a repair that would typically be contracted out as a favor to his boss, he's just about to his breaking point.
Everything changes when the stagehand sent to open the theater for him is none other than his big sister's childhood friend. The same girl he lusted after as a teenager. Could this be fate's way of showing him that he was looking in the wrong place for love?
As Adam and Carly's friendship develops, lines will be crossed and rules will be broken. Will they be able to come out the other side without destroying everything they had back in Brooklyn?
~Teaser~
"Hello?" A deep voice resonated from backstage. The way the timbre of the man's voice echoed off the acoustic panels in the empty theater sent a shiver down Carly's spine. She was surrounded daily by men whose voices could melt butter, but there was something about his particular voice that heightened her senses.
"Out here," she shouted, still wrestling to pull the set piece out of her curtain without causing any damage Dax would make her fix later. She blew a stray hair away from her eyes as the lighting contractor rounded the corner.
When she looked up, she did a double-take. The broad shoulders and angled jaw were all new but there was no mistaking the icy blue eyes looking down at her. They were the same eyes she had seen nearly every day of her childhood. "Adam?"
"Carly Turner? What are the odds..."
When she had moved away from home, Adam Sanders had been a bit gangly and not nearly this tall. She figured he would have grown up to be the man a woman grew to love for his heart despite his awkward appearance. The fact that it looked like he wasn't opposed to spending time in the gym and he had lost the child-like face did nothing to settle her nerves. Carly shook the thoughts out of her head. This was Adam, the boy who had been the little brother Carly never had. Even if she had never felt that familial bond with him, there was definitely a rule about drooling over your best friend's little brother.
"Well, I think they're probably long enough that there's no point in buying a lottery ticket tonight," Oh god, did I just compare seeing Adam to winning the lottery?
Make sure you get Bent the first book in the Back to Brooklyn Series Bent FREE until the 27th!
~Author Bio~
With the exception of three years spent in the middle of Nebraska, H.B. Heinzer has called southern Wisconsin home. During that time in Nebraska, she imagined one of her favorite authors living on the far western edge of the country, just south of the highway. At the time, becoming a novelist was a distant dream for her. Now, she is the author living in that location. Ironically, she later found out that same favorite author lives just outside the town HB lived in for the first eighteen years of her life. Now, HB lives in the middle of nowhere but still close enough to the city to not feel isolated. It's the perfect place to let her two kids run and explore their huge yard, teach them about the food chain as they prepare their first-ever garden and debate building a chicken coop. It's one of those dreams that is only possible thanks to the amazing opportunities that have come through writing.
Married and settled in New York City, Ryan and Julia Matthews seek to start their family and enjoy their idyllic newlywed life together. Julia’s high-profile job at Vogue and Ryan’s promising career in medicine will surely set them up for everything they could ever want, their only obstacle seems to be finding enough time to spend together.
When a scuffle at Ryan’s hospital puts his life in danger, a colleague steps in to save him but is critically injured in the process. In a heroic and unwavering effort, Ryan manages to save her, but her injuries irrevocably change her life forever.
Though Julia’s gratitude urges her to befriend the woman, she feels pushed aside when Ryan, feeling indebted and laden with guilt, befriends the woman during her recovery. Julia puts on a good front, but as time goes on her resolve vanishes as the friendship begins to infiltrate what little time the couple has together and she is reminded of how her own relationship with Ryan began.
In Ryan’s mind he is doing nothing more than supporting a friend’s healing and is angry at Julia’s apparent lack of trust, despite his attempts to console her. When events get too much for her, a heartbroken Julia flees without telling her husband her destination or even if she will return.
When grief pushes him beyond what’s humanly possible and he is on the verge of losing his mind, he is forced to decide how much he will pay for his new friendship and Julia, what she is willing to endure in order to spare herself the unspeakable pain of watching someone else try to replace her in Ryan’s heart.
Join Ryan and Julia in the heart-wrenching conclusion to the unforgettable story of an incredible love; worth every single sacrifice…
For there is nothing more sacred than… A Love Like This…
Whoa! This trilogy just got better and better and A Love Like This was the perfect ending to round out this MAD MAD LOVE story.
Kahlen Aymes did a superb job with this story. She truly captured their emotions and devotions for one another. I was fully connected to both Ryan and Julia.
It had everything I felt was missing from the previous books. With Future of Our Past I felt it was too fluffy. But this one was so angsty and raw that it really shredded my heart. It made me feel the great love that Ryan and Julia had for each other.
"Nothing had changed the love; Sometimes suffocating, sometimes debilitating, sometimes so joyous and incredible, but always overwhelming and utterly amazing. The mad mad love remained, maybe stronger and more than it had ever been. Always growing, no matter what we faced. It had always been unconditional, nothing could ever change it. Not in this lifetime or a thousand more. No matter how much we hurt each other, the love was still strong enough to make us invincible, or kill us both."
Ryan and Julia have gone through so much in the past year and their roller coaster has no intention of slowing down. After Don't Get To Remember Me and Julia finally regains her memory their love story starts once again up the slow incline up their rollercoaster track. Filling you full of nervousness, fear and excitement. Once at the peak your heart and nerves are a jumbled mess and you know what's coming... The dreaded stomach-churning descent that will have you feeling a little sick to your stomach until you reach the platform once again. But because you are a masochists at heart once the ride
concludes all you want to shout is "I WANT TO RIDE IT AGAIN!"
Don't forget to check out books one and two in The Remembrance Trilogy
~About Kahlen~
Kahlen is an award-winning author of sizzling hot, deeply moving contemporary romance. Her stories are filled with intense love, passion, angst and emotion that breathes life into her characters and leaves her readers captivated. She lives near Omaha, Nebraska with her daughter, Olivia and their three dogs. Creative by nature, she enjoys the arts, music and theater... But the love of her life is writing!
Represented by Elizabeth Winick-Rubinstein of McIntosh & Otis Literary Agency, the first two books in her series; The Remembrance Trilogy are available now. Come and experience Ryan and Julia's mad, mad love.
Champion skier Pippa Baker lost everything in the avalanche: her boyfriend, his best friend, and her will to win. After a year of grief, she returns to competition.
She finds more than buried memories and steep slopes in Utah. She finds Hunter Dawson, a heartbreaking daredevil with the gold medals to prove it. And she finds that his reputation doesn't stop her from falling hard, and that her heart might not be as broken as she once believed.
But Hunter has scars and memories too -- scars that make him believe falling in love might hurt too much, scars that make him run.
Pippa knows how much love hurst when it's gone. Will she stop herself before she's in too deep?
~Buy it!~
~Excerpt~
"I'm going grab a drink," I say, badly wanting something to ease the nerves and excitement of being back here. The last time I saw most of these faces was at Ryan's funeral. I shake that unpleasant, searing memory. Parker had been a pallbearer. Joe had practically collapsed outside of the church. I shudder. Center myself in the present.
You're in a bar. Almost a year later.
I look around for a bartender, and find Laurel instead.
"Hey!" she slurs enthusiastically.
"Hey, Laurel."
"Lucky break today, huh?" she asks.
"Yep. You okay?"
She rolls her eyes. "Fine. I was so fucking pissed."
"It happens to everyone," I say with a shrug.
"Not to me," she tosses her hair. "So, you're like back or whatever? For real?"
I nod. "I'm back."
Hunter leans further on the counter and looks down, past Laurel to me.
"How'd you do?" he asks. His eyes are locked intensely on mine. It's a gaze that I can't hold for long.
"Third," I say.
"Not bad," he smiles mischievously. "Told you I'd pray for you."
Laure shakes her head as if she's noticed that Hunter and I are talking for the first time. "Oh. Hunter, this is Pippa."
"Hey," I say.
We know each other, Hunter says automatically.
"How?" she demands.
"We were on the same plane here," Hunter says. He watches me. He answers Laurel's question, but his eyes don't leave me. "Philly, can I get you a drink?"
"Ah..." I glance at him and at the bartender and at Laurel.
"Her name is Pippa," Laurel says.
"What do you like?"
"Gin and tonic."
He grins. "Country club girl, huh?"
Laurel looks at him and scowls. "Hunter, don't leave without me. I'm going to say hi to all of my friends."
She disappears over to Brooke and a few of the men's Alpine skiers. I watch her, curiously, while a few of the make skiers let their eyes roam over me. They're not checking me out. It's more of a haunted look. Like, I'm the ghost of a bad memory they try to forget everyday.
They were the ones who were Danny and Ryan's best friends. The guys they grew up with, fought with, all of that stuff.
And I'm the girl who somehow didn't die when both of their buddies did. I swallow. I know they can't look at me without thinking of them. I know that's true for so many people here.
"Hey," Hunter says softly, getting my attention. He has a beer and my drink.
He pushes the glass towards me and leaves a twenty-dollar bill on the bar.
He steps closer, sits down on a stool near me, and leans close, so I can feel the heat of his body and smell his aftershave. I like being near him. It's warm. It feels dangerous.
"So are you always this happy with third place?" he teases.
"No. Not usually."
He nods. "Better than second." He rubs his chin. "Someone once told me that there's nothing worse than forth place, because you're the best person not to get a medal. But I don't think that's true. I think second is the worst."
I nod. "You finish second a lot?"
He laughs. "Nah. I finish first or I don't finish at all."
"You race?"
"Used to," he nods. "Not anymore. I do some freestyle stuff, half-pipe." He smiles. "I actually started snowboarding because I hated racing-- when I skied. When I was a little kid." He bites his lip and cocks his head. "But, I like to compete. Plus, I wasn't any good on skis."
"I doubt that's true."
"No, it is..." he shakes his head. " I raced your ex-boyfriend for a while. Danny?"
I nod. "Oh, yeah?"
"Back in middle school. Ryan, too. Ryan was fucking good. Everyone always told us to try and do it like Ryan."
I flutter my eyelashes briefly, remembering how quick and graceful Ryan was. Even my dad, who knew little about competitive skiing, said so when he watched him race.
"The Snow Cat."
"Huh?"
"Ryan the Snow Cat. That's what Danny called him-- always landed on his feet."
Hunter nods. "You don't want to talk about this." He moves a little closer.
"We can talk about it." I don't mind telling Hunter about them-- he barely knew them and he seems barely curious.
"But you don't want to." His hair is combed back, in soft dark waves, and his eyes are big, green and glassy. The color of celery. He lifts the dark Budweiser bottle to his mouth and takes a long sip of beer. God, he looks good.
He wipes the back of his mouth with one hand, a lazy, athletic gesture that makes me look at his lips, soft and...Shit, Pippa, you cannot be doing this right now.
I finish half of my drink in one swallow.
"Thirsty?"
"Yeah," I say. "Nervous."
He raises an eyebrow. I wish I could do that. "Yeah? Do I make you nervous, Pippa?"
I blush. Stupid admission. Yes. "You've decided to call me Pippa?"
He smiles. "I feel weird buying someone named Phil drinks."
"Ah, got it."
He leaned forward onto his arms. I smell the alcohol on his breath; he's more than a little bit tipsy at this point. "So, did you feel it change?"
"What?"
"Everything."
"When?"
"Today."
"I didn't feel anything change."
"When you finished third," he bites his lip and slides even closer to me. He leans and whispers in my ear. "You know, nobody feels sorry for you anymore. Now that they think you might be in the way again."
I look back, over the people I know, and then up at Hunter. "Everyone here is an adult. We all want the same thing. We know that."
He laughs. "You think Laurel's going to go quietly if you keep beating her?" He shakes his head. "I saw you go today. You weren't even trying. If I could see that, then I'm sure everyone else could."
"I was trying."
"Not like you used to."
"You never saw me ski before, so..."
"I know what playing scared looks like. Trust me. I was that guy for a long time," he nods. He looks down at the bar.
"What's your point?"
"Nothing." He shrugs: "You seem like a cool girl. And I know what it's like.
One year I was the down on his luck kid and everyone was happy to see me win. The next year, I was just the competition. And I couldn't figure out why people I thought were friends weren't my friends anymore. Things change when you win. When it's you, you're the last person to realize what's happening."
I nod. "Oh, and you're just looking out for me?"
"You don't have to believe me."
"No," I say. I step back. "I never said I didn't believe you. Thanks, I guess."
"Laurel hates your fucking guts, by the way."
"Yeah. So I've heard."
He shrugs, not saying anything back to me.
"So, what's your deal with her? She's your girlfriend?"
He takes a long sip of beer, buying a little more time. He swallows and smirks.
"I guess it depends on whether you want to come home with me."
A flush rushes to my face. I didn't think I seemed that easy. Or like I wanted him that badly. "Excuse me?"
"Do you want to come home with me?"
I stare at him. "How much had you had to drink?"
"Not that much," he shrugs. "Interested?"
"No," I say indignantly.
"Yeah, then, sure. I guess she's my girlfriend." I stare at him for a few seconds.
"I..."
"What? Changed your mind?" he asks wickedly.
"No." I shake my head. "Have fun."
"I'll try, Philly." I really doesn't seem like he cares that I've said no, and he definitely doesn't care if I'm pissed off. But I am pissed off-- both by the question and by the fact that he's leaving with Laurel so soon after asking me if I wanted to go home with him.
~Fun Facts~
1. I lost my two front teeth when I walked into a swinging door.
2. I'm afraid of the subway and I live in New York City. I'm the most useless New Yorker you've ever heard of.
3. I thought the saying "for all intents and purposes" was "for all intensive purposes" until yesterday when I misused it in an email while trying to sound smart.
4. I wanted to be a journalist until I realized it was way more fun to make things up.
5. I'm addicted to Amanda Bynes's twitter feed
~ Playlist ~
"Truman Sleeps"
"Sail" by AWOL Nation
"Hurricane" by CVRCHES remix
"I Know You Care" by Ellie Goulding
"I Love It" by Icona Pop
"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men
"Love Show" by Skye
"Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia
"Cold Desert" by Kings of Leon
"Hear You Me" by Jimmie Eat World
~About the Author~
Audrey Bell lives in New York City, where she indulges her SoulCycle addiction and expresses her passionate hatred of the 6 Train. You can find her reading in Central Park, over-caffeinating at Starbucks, or trying to kidnap her neighbors' Maltese puppy. She loves hearing from headers.
Leave a blog post comment below for a chance to win a copy of Carry Your Heart in Mobi or Epub format and don't forget to enter to win a Kindle Paperwhite! (Open Internationally)
When Alysin decided to surprise her boyfriend at work with dinner, the surprise was on her. Since he was going at it with his secretary on the conference table, she packed a bag and called her BFF. Jolie and Alysin had been traveling the country, working as digital nomads for ten years ever since graduation. Taking this a sign that it was time for a new move, they decided to take a cruise, and make a plan.
Then she meets Mr. Bedroom Eyes. Following her lead, they pretended to be married so that she can rid herself of a guy who started hitting on her before the boat left the dock. Though it was supposed to be a momentary arrangement, he asks her to take it one step farther. Then another and another. The cruise promises to be memorable in every way that matters.
Along the way, Alysin learns that she wont have to fake an orgasm if she's with someone who knows what to do, that not all men suck, but the best ones suck really well, and that sometimes what starts out as something pretend, can fast become something completely real. Will the woman who lives life with no regrets, regret that she made that stupid rule about not exchanging names and contact info?
~Excerpt~
We walked further without speaking, my anticipation building. Finally, he broke the silence. "See, I have given both your dilemma and your offer careful consideration. It's clear to me that there is really one solution." He smiled broadly at his proclamation.
"Oh, really?" I asked with an eyebrow raised. "And just what is my dilemma?"
"Obviously, you need a great protector to fend off unwanted men on this cruise," he announced, puffing out his chest for effect, further proof that he was the protector I needed.
I smiled because he was so damn cute. "Oh, but I have Jolie," I remarked.
"Listen, if this Jolie exists, I have yet to see her. You keep claiming her, but both times we've met, she was nowhere to be found." He shrugged and looked about. "So, I think you should consider my offer. It's a pretty great offer."
"Oh, really. And just what is that?" Looking about, I realized that we had stopped in the cruise ship jewelry shop. Then Mr. Bedroom Eyes dropped to one knee. I backed up a step. "What are you doing?" I asked, confused and concerned. This could go very badly. I may have misjudged him completely.
"Relax," he urged. "I just have one very important question to ask you. And these things are better said with jewelry that I ever could with words."
I started to take a second step back. I'm a runner. Only he grabbed my hand and halted my escape.
"Will you be my wife for the week?" He asked. Then he batted his eyelashes at me.
It really took all the pressure off. Throwing my head back, I let out a huge laugh...a combination of relief and pure joy. "Are you sure you don't want to date me? I hear there's a lot more sex in dating than there is in marriage?"
He stood slowly, contemplating the idea. "This is true, but since I've had no sex with you thus far, any would be an improvement. Plus, since you already announced me as your husband, I thought this would keep the charade going."
~About the Author~
What made her decide to be an erotic author?
Simple.
How else was she going to parlay her two favorite past times into a career?
Known for her sense of humor, Emma surrounds herself with friends whose antics often become the source of book fodder. Her ideal situation would be to explore the Caribbean while writing. She pursues that dream daily.
Ten things about me:
