Friday, March 31, 2023

#FreeRead - Wolf Marked by #VeronicaDouglas

 

Title: Wolf Marked
Author: Veronica Douglas
Genre: PNR, Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: July 30th, 2021
Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:

Werewolves are hunting me.

 

I was just an ordinary girl waiting tables in a small-town bar. I had no idea magic was real. That was, until I backed my car over a werewolf a couple times.

 

In my defense, the wolf was trying to murder me, and I was all out of mace.

 

Now I’ve got a cult of rogue wolves on my heels, and the only one who can protect me is Jaxson Laurent—the alpha of the Chicago pack.

 

He suspects I’m special and can’t take his eyes off me, but the problem is—he’s the sworn enemy of my family. Every time we get close it feels like something is going to rip out of my soul, but the heat between us is irresistible.

 

Like it or not, the fates are pushing us together.

 

With danger around every corner and wolves howling in the night, I need to master my magic and stand my ground, or I’ll be dead before the next moon rises.




Veronica Douglas is a duo of professional archaeologists that love writing and digging together. After spending an inordinate amount of time doing painstaking research for academia, they suddenly discovered a passion for letting their imaginations go wild! A cocktail of magic, romance, and ancient mystery (shaken, not stirred), their books are inspired, in part, by their life in Chicago and their archaeological adventures from around the globe.

Learn about Veronica Douglas' new books by joining their newsletter at https://www.veronicadouglas.com/newsletter

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#FreeRead - Of the Blood by @CameoRenae

     

Title: Of the Blood
Author: Cameo Renae
Genre: YA Dark Fantasy
Cover Designer: Jay Villalobos - Covers by Juan
Publication Date: May 15th, 2020
Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:
Raised in a war-ravaged continent, temptation comes to Calla Caldwell in the form of a charming and mysterious stranger. Giving in to his intimate seduction, her world is forever changed by a single bite.

Calla quickly learns the handsome stranger is vampire prince, Trystan Vladu. His bite was an attempt to claim and save her from a plot of vengeance generations in the making. However, the claws of that ancient vendetta are scraping ever closer.

Thrust into a new nightmare by the Prince of the corrupt kingdom of Morbeth, Calla is captured, tortured, and starved in the dank confines of his dungeon. While in captivity, she takes part in a séance with a witch of light where she contacts a departed relative—a Princess of Incendia—who bequeaths a gift to Calla that will tip the scales of good and evil . . . if she can learn to harness it.

With a dark tapestry of secrets, lies, and murder unraveling around her, Calla must learn to embrace the power roiling through her veins, or be snuffed out by the strangling fist of a malevolent darkness.





Cameo was born in San Francisco, raised in Maui, Hawaii, and now resides with her husband in Las Vegas. She is a dreamer and caffeine addict who loves to laugh and loves to read to escape reality.

 

One of her greatest satisfactions is creating fantasy worlds filled with adventure and romance. It is the love and incredible support of her family and fans that keeps her going. One day she hopes to uncover a magic wardrobe and ride away on a unicorn. Until then . . . she'll keep writing!

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#FreeRead - Of Blood and Crowns by @AuthorRavenMore

  

Title: Of Blood & Crowns
Author: Raven More
Genre: PNR, Fantasy Romance
Cover Designer: Wynter Designs
Publication Date: Jan. 17th, 2023
Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:

On my sixteenth birthday, I’ll become a murderer.

 

I don’t want to kill anyone but it’s my duty as princess.

 

To stop the threat of the Cursed. The ones who destroyed our planet and most life.

 

If I don’t participate in the ritual to seal my initiation into the ruling council and solidify my mother’s empire, everyone will figure out the truth.

 

My truth.

 

That I’m a Cursed.

 

It gets worse.

 

My only hope rests in the hands of Ryker, whose sister I sentenced to death.



USA Today bestselling author of sci-fi & romance under other secret identities can deny the call to other worlds no longer. Come escape with me.

 

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#FreeRead - Cruel Shadows by @HarperABrooks

    

Title: Cruel Shadows
Author: Harper A. Brooks
Genre: Monster Romance
Cover Designer: Claire Holt at luminescence covers
Publication Date: November 17th, 2022
Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:

I’m caught in the shadows…

…and the shadows want to play.

 

I thought I’d dreamed up the shadow realm and the place I called Dark Castle.

 

But it’s very real. And he’s still here.

 

My prince, my savior, my captor…

 

The monster in my bed.

 

But this time, he’s not alone.

 

I must escape, but first, my prince and his shadow men want me to fulfill their demands.

 

All of them.

 

The longer I stay, the harder it is to resist their dark promises, their insatiable hunger. Because, while these monsters’ smiles are cruel, their touches are the most delicious torture.

 

But they aren’t the only threat in this world. The darkness that wanted me before has found me again, and like my Shadow Prince, it’s ready to claim me as its own…forever.

 

Cruel Shadows is book 1 in the Kingdom of Monsters series. It's a full length fantasy monster romance with some darker themes, lots of steam, and is a story where the heroine will end up with more than one love interest.



Harper A. Brooks lives in a small town on the New Jersey shore. Even though classic authors have always filled her bookshelves, she finds her writing muse drawn to the dark, magical, and romantic. But when she isn't creating entire worlds with sexy shifters or legendary love stories, you can find her either with a good cup of coffee in hand or at home snuggling with her furry, four-legged son, Sammy.

She writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

RONE Award Winner

USA TODAY Bestselling Author

International Bestselling Author

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#ReleaseBoost & #Giveaway - Stone Stolen by @AuthorMiaEllas

  

Title: Stone Stolen
Author: Mia Ellas
Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance
Cover Designer: Ann Kasatkina Covers
Publisher: SOL BOUND BOOKS
Publication Date: Feb. 14th, 2023
Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:

When Jeannie meets Sven, a gargoyle on the run from evil alchemists, she must navigate the dangers of the supernatural world and decide between her duty and her heart.

 

Jeannie is a gargoyle, beings created by the universe to guard its secrets. But that was a long time ago. These days, Jeannie has channeled all her protective instincts into raising her younger brother and sister alone. Born without a clan, Jeannie has never met another gargoyle who wasn't related to her.

 

That is, until she meets Sven, a gargoyle sworn to protect a powerful magical stone. Sven is on the run from alchemists who plan to use the stone for evil. Jeannie is drawn to Sven and feels a strong connection with him, but she must decide if she can trust him when protecting the stone puts her family in danger. As the danger surrounding the stone grows, Jeannie must confront her own lack of knowledge about her species and decide between her duty and her desires.

 

Will she choose duty over love, or will Sven be the one to melt her heart of stone?

 

Stone Stolen is an action packed Urban Fantasy slow burn romance.



Urban fantasy and paranormal romance author Mia Ellas was always accused of living in her own world so she decided to put it to paper. She loves things that go bump in the night so she decided to share her love with her readers.

 

Mia resides in Florida with her family and balances her writing with an active lifestyle. When not writing, she enjoys the beach, mountain biking, and hiking.

 

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Sven

 

"I thought an adder stone had a hole in it?" Jeannie's younger brother asked, peering more closely at the strange object. He was a thin young man, likely no older than nineteen, with poorly dyed black hair hanging too long in his gray eyes.

"You're thinking of a hag stone," I explained, having done more research during my long run from the alchemists. "Which are sometimes also called adder stones. This is the Adder Stone, as spoken of by the Roman philosopher Pliny. He ascribed it to the druids and claimed it had all manner of powers. In truth, it's a reservoir of magical potential. The ancient kings of our kind, not just gargoyles but all supernatural beings, kept it and poured their power into it like a stockpile. After thousands of years, it contains so much energy you could do almost anything with it. Which is why the alchemists must not have it. I'm certain some of them believe they would only preserve it as an artifact of our shared history, but the desperation with which they are searching for it makes it apparent that at least one of them knows of its potential and has every intention of using it."

Jeannie nodded, her expression grim. "You're right. I wouldn't trust the alchemists with the magical energy I could store up in a day, let alone thousands of years. But why did the thief bring it to you?"

"I am a gargoyle," I said with a shrug. "We are made to protect things."

"More importantly," Ruhi interjected. "You're made to preserve the things you protect, not to take them for yourselves. I doubt it's even once occurred to you that you could access that magic if you wanted. Might have made getting away from the alchemists a lot easier. But that's not something most gargoyles would even conceive of."

I stared at the angel, thrown by the realization that he was right. It really hadn't occurred to me that I could have used the stone's magic. Sometimes I doubted that gargoyle instincts could be as powerful as they were, but clearly I'd underestimated them.

"Also, I regret to inform you that stone is not remotely what you think it is," Ruhi continued, taking the stone out of my hands and holding it up to admire the gleam of its rainbow sheen. "I assume it wasn't this big when you got it?"

He was right. It had grown from roughly the size and shape of a robin's egg to something closer to a goose egg, so gradually at first, I almost hadn't noticed. But since I'd arrived in Saint Augustine it had doubled in size practically overnight.

"How did you know?"

"Because I've seen it before," Ruhi replied, still looking at the stone. "Once. I never thought I'd see one again. Especially not outside of Faerie."

"Faerie?" Jeannie repeated, frowning in clear suspicion. "What exactly is it if it's not this Adder Stone?"

"Oh, it is the Adder Stone," Ruhi explained. "It's just that the Adder Stone has never been what people thought it was. They believed it was a simple magic item, a receptacle for energy. But it's never been that. It's an egg."

He paused a moment to let the impact of that settle over everyone. Brynn gasped. Jeannie looked more displeased than ever.

"What kind of egg?" she demanded.

"The egg of a very rare and powerful fae creature known as a marefox," Ruhi explained. "Marefox breed very rarely, but their eggs can sit dormant for thousands of years, accumulating magical energy while they wait for the right conditions to hatch."

"Mare fox," Brynn repeated, moving closer to touch the egg curiously. It shimmered under her fingers and her eyes widened in wonder. "Does that mean it's like a horse?"

"That's mare as in Latin for the ocean," Ruhi said. "It's also called a Seafox or a Seawolf. They resemble a fox or a small canine, like a coyote, at least in the face, with a long, snakelike body and innumerable stilt-like legs which they use to leap and run over the surface of the oceans of Faerie. They don’t typically swim, just skim the waves. They can grow to vast sizes. There are elder marefox out in the uncharted waters of Faerie that can be mistaken for islands at a distance."

"Why is it getting bigger?" I asked, fairly certain I already knew the answer, but not why it was so.

"Because it's getting ready to hatch," Ruhi said, confirming my fears. "I would hazard a guess that's because it feels safe, being protected by a gargoyle clan."

"We aren't—" I started to say.

"We aren't a clan," Jeannie said sharply before I could, with a forcefulness that almost wounded me. Was the idea of being part of a clan with me that repellent to her?

"As far as the egg is concerned, you're close enough," Ruhi said with a shrug.

"So what does that mean for us?" Jeannie asked. "Do we just need to keep it away from the alchemists ’til it hatches, then?"

"You wouldn't want them getting their hands on a live marefox either," Ruhi said frankly. "At least not an infant. An adult could more than defend itself. I doubt any human, no matter how magically gifted, could contain an adult marefox if it didn't want to be contained. Marefox have the ability to open portals between the worlds. The magic that built the Crossroads is very similar. Imagine what the alchemists could do with that if a newly hatched and helpless marefox fell into their hands. That is if they didn't dissect it for spell components."

"That must not happen," I said immediately, protective instinct roaring to life at the very idea of such a thing happening to a life I had been charged to protect. I could see a flash of the same instinct in the eyes of Brynn, and even Xander leaned closer, frowning in distress at the thought. Only Jeannie held back, her mouth set in a grim line.

"This creature, is it dangerous?" she asked.

"Potentially very," Ruhi confirmed. "Adult marefox are extremely ferocious. And their ability to open portals presents all kind of hazards. It's not something you'd want running around on earth unattended for sure."

"What if it didn't have gargoyles guarding it anymore?" Jeannie continued. "Would it go dormant again?"

"I'm not sure," Ruhi said honestly. "It might. Or it might be too late for that at this point. I'm not sure there's any way to tell."

"How have the alchemists been tracking it so far?" Xander asked thoughtfully. "They've got to be tracking its magical signature, right? The energy it gives off is pretty unique."

"I couldn't say," I admitted, but Ruhi nodded.

"It's a solid guess," he said. "In which case there might be a way to trick them."

"Exactly what I was thinking!" Xander said, leaning forward over the arm of the couch eagerly. "We create a fake egg with a duplicate energy signature and use it to throw them off course."

"If we combine that with cloaking the true egg's signature," Ruhi suggested. "We might be able to put them off for good."

"We could use the same spell I used for cloaking the apartment," Xander said, enthusiasm growing. "A smaller, concentrated version. Then we like... chuck the fake egg into the ocean or something! They clearly can't pinpoint where it is exactly if they've had to search the whole city for it. Dump it in the ocean and they'd never find it, so they'd never figure out it wasn't real!"

"Sounds like a hell of a plan to me," Ruhi agreed.

"Or," Jeannie interjected. "We could dump the actual egg in the ocean and be done with this."

"What?!" Brynn looked horrified by even the idea. Xander looked almost as dismayed. I couldn't imagine my own expression. "What about when it hatches?"

"It probably wouldn't hatch under those conditions anyway," Jeannie replies. "And it would get all of us out of danger a lot faster. The faster this situation is resolved, the faster Sven here can get the hell out of Saint Augustine before he sets off another gargoyle/vampire war."

Suddenly, her recalcitrance made more sense and I felt a rush of guilt. I hadn't just put her and her family in danger from the Alchemists, I'd also endangered whatever peace they had worked out with Soren's coven. It was no wonder she wanted me gone.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you throw that poor thing into the ocean after it trusted us enough to start hatching!" Brynn declared, turning to face her sister with fire in her eyes.

"And what about after it hatches?" Jeannie replied. "What happens then? You think you can just keep it like a pet? Ruhi said they could grow to the size of an island. I don't really see that working out in 1200 square foot apartment, do you?"

Ruhi cleared his throat. "Actually, it may not hatch for years yet. And as soon as it's strong enough to create a portal, it will probably return to Faerie instinctively. They feed on magic and, magically speaking, Earth is a desert compared to where it came from.”

"See?" Brynn said triumphantly. "So there's no problem!"

"There are still numerous, significant problems," Jeannie replied with a scowl.

"I… really want to protect it, too," Xander put in a bit uncertainly. "I know there's risk involved but… It feels like the right thing to do."

Brynn took the egg from Ruhi, who looked a bit startled by how abruptly she snatched it, and held it out to Jeannie.

"I know you can feel it, too," she said, big eyes earnest and brimming with hope. "It wants us to protect it. It chose us. Hold it, and tell me you can't feel that."

She pressed the egg into Jeannie's hands and I saw Jeannie's stubborn expression melt almost immediately. She cradled the small gray shape in her palms, looking down at it with an expression of such conflicted emotion that I immediately wanted to take it from her, to assure her I would leave at once and never bother her again, anything to erase that distress from her face.

"…Fine," she said at length, taking a deep breath. "We'll do Xander's plan to hide it from the alchemists."

Brynn and Xander both cheered.

"But after that, it's gone," Jeannie finished, cutting them off. "Sven will take it and go into hiding. There's no reason to keep it around here where the alchemists might still be keeping an eye out. It doesn't need all of us to finish hatching."

Brynn tried to argue, but I held up a hand to stop her.

"That's more than fair," I said. "I don't wish to endanger any of you any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Thank you," Jeannie said reluctantly. I nodded, wishing a part of me didn't feel like it was dying to see her so relieved at the thought of me being gone.



Thursday, March 30, 2023

#FreeRead - Perfect by @tcbrzostowicz

      

Title: Perfect
Author: Tricia Copeland
Genre: Contemporary Romance/College Romance/Multi-cultural romance
Cover Designer: Daryl McCool, dam Cool Graphics
Publisher: true bird publishing llc
Editor: Jo Michaels, Indie Books Gone Wild
Hosted by: Lady Amber's Reviews & PR

Blurb:

The Bachelorette meets Emily in Paris…

 

Who is her perfect happily ever after? Five men, five choices. You decide!

 

Chloe refuses to compromise when it comes to romance and success. Powering through her sophomore-level college business classes, she’s done with the effort of distance-dating her high-school sweetheart. But when he proposes just as she hits it off with a hunky basketball player, she worries following her heart could send her bright future to the bench.

 

As Chloe carves out her position as a rising star in the fashion industry, she’s faced with many choices. Not the least of which comprise who to give her heart to.

 

Whose should be standing at the end of her happily ever after when Chloe marches down the aisle?

 

Perfect Match is a clean new adult contemporary romance. If you like tender moments, lighthearted comedy, and heart-stopping PDA, then you’ll love Maria Jane’s, who is her perfect match, read.






An avid runner and Georgia native, Tricia now lives with her family and four-legged friends in Colorado. She believes that magic infuses every aspect of our lives, whether it is the magic of falling in love, discovering a new passion, a beautiful sunset, or a book that transports us to another world. You can find all her titles from contemporary romance and fantasy, to dystopian fiction at www.triciacopeland.com.

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#FreeRead - Where Oceans Burn by @AuthorCaseyBond

      

Title: Where Oceans Burn
Author: Casey L. Bond
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy
Editor: Stacy Sanford/ The Girl with the Red Pen
Cover Designer: Melissa Stevens/ The Illustrated Author Design Services
Blurb: The Blurb Doctor
Publication Date: Oct. 13th, 2022
Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR


Blurb:
With these three virtues, we shall rise. With these three, we shall conquer.

Truth. Honor. Blood.

 

To my people, the sky-reigning Empyreans, Intention Day is sacred...

 

                                                                        Truth…

 

To me, it’s the day my carefully crafted lie crumbles and my truth gives way to my ruin. The intense power surging through my veins is revealed, immediately coveted by those eager to exploit me for what they deem a greater good. If they have their way, the future I long for will be ripped away. But I am a warrior born to fly. To fight. Not to be caged and controlled.

 

The great scale of the goddess Neera has tipped out of my favor. The pans teeter between weighty punishment and deadly opportunity. My choices? Capture my most formidable enemy before next Intention Day, or forfeit my wings.

 

                                                                        Honor…

 

But life’s loftiest plans are often a breath away from disaster, and tragedy strikes as unpredictably as a bolt of lightning. When I find myself at the mercy of my greatest enemy, the terror known as the Shark of the Sea, the monster who killed the person I loved most, I accept my fate. My death. But the Shark does not lash out in revenge for all I’ve done. He tells me his true name is Crest. And while he calls me a Scourge, he honors his orders to guard me.

 

                                                                        Blood…

 

Forced together, Crest reveals that the truth only exists in the place between our perspectives and shares his hope to garner peace before the land is further soaked with the blood of sky and sea. The longer I am among his kind, the more I wonder if he might be right. Could an alliance be the salvation of both our peoples?

 

I am Elira, great Scourge of the Sky.

He is Crest, cunning Shark of the Sea.

Together... we could be unstoppable.



Casey Bond lives on a rural farm in West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. She writes phoenixes – gloriously flawed and morally gray characters that fiercely rise from the ashes of their circumstances. World building is one of her favorite hobbies, along with stamping metal jewelry, swimming, and enjoying the beauty of nature. She thinks thunderstorms are better than coffee and that watching a meteor shower is the closest thing to magic you might ever see. She’s a firm believer that every amazing book needs a world you want to wrap yourself in, a character you want to win, and a love you would fight for.

 

Casey is the award-winning author of When Wishes Bleed, Gravebriar, and House of Eclipses.


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