Book Blast for Broken Dreams by Nancy Pennick w/a $20 GC giveaway!

Feb 9, 2015

BROKEN DREAMS

by Nancy Pennick

BLURB:

Two friends…

Blood sisters till the end…

Until they’re not.

One cold night in a boarding school dorm, two fourteen-year-old girls make a blood sister pact. Friends forever. As young schoolgirls, they’re determined to find true love, learning the hits and misses along the way. As graduation nears, the girls have different outlooks for the future. Lucinda longs for adventure. Anna chooses city life and marriage. Finding their way back together, the girls head west for an experience of a lifetime until a handsome cowboy bursts into their lives, changing the course of their friendship forever.

Excerpt Five:

“Don’t worry. It’s not the first time it’s happened.” He gave her a wicked smile, part imp and part seductive. He hopped up in one smooth motion and moved the cart to the side.

Anna, surprised by his answer, burst out laughing. She pictured him being knocked down by carts in every aisle of the library. She quickly covered her mouth.

Roy put a finger to his lips. “You don’t want to be asked to leave, do you?” That caused both of them to double over in silent laughter.

Anna took deep breaths and slowly straightened up. When she made eye contact, the hysterics started all over again. His eyes held a hint of mischief, drawing her in. Roy ran his hand through his wavy brown hair and leaned against the bookshelf as if having a casual conversation with an old friend. Funny thing, it felt like more than friendship.

“Anna!”

She spun around at the sound of her name. “Lucinda! This is Roy. I just knocked him over with a cart.” As soon as she said it, she had to swallow hard to suppress the giggle that begged to escape.

“Yes, she did. She’s lethal.” Roy held out his hand. “Hello, Lucinda, nice to meet you.”

She leaned across Anna and shook his hand. Anna took a few steps back so Lucinda could get closer to Roy. “I’ll just be over there.” She gestured and grabbed a book off the shelf as she went by.

I can’t believe that just happened. I find Roy. I knock Roy over. I instantly fall in love.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Nancy currently resides in Mentor, Ohio with her husband and son, plus a delightfully entertaining lovebird. Her writing is influenced by all the years of working with young people as a teacher and raising her own son. When not writing, Nancy loves to travel with her husband and enjoys a good cup of tea. Broken Dreams is a stand alone companion piece to her young adult Waiting for Dusk series.

Publisher- Fire and Ice

http://www.fireandiceya.com/authors/nancypennick/brokendreams.html

Links to me:

Twitter- https://twitter.com/npennick   @npennick

Facebook Fan page – https://www.facebook.com/nancypennickauthor

WordPress blog- http://nancypennick.wordpress.com/

Amazon Author Page- http://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Pennick/e/B00AKX0MZ0/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Goodreads –  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6734986.Nancy_Pennick

Links to other books:

Waiting for Dusk

http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Dusk-Nancy-Pennick-ebook/dp/B00AF47ELO

Call of the Canyon

http://www.amazon.com/Call-Canyon-Waiting-Dusk-Book-ebook/dp/B00F6DEYHG

Stealing Time

FREE short story:

Taking Chances: A Waiting for Dusk Story

 

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Top Ten List with C. Lee McKenzie featuring Sudden Secrets w/a rafflecopter giveaway!

Jan 9, 2015

Sudden Secrets by Lee McKenzie

YA Romantic Suspense, 62k words

Released Dec. 19, Evernight Teen

 

 

One Secret 

 

Cleo has struggled to heal after her baby sister’s death, but the flashbacks to the accident won’t go away. With the move, she vows to keep her tragedy a secret and avoid pitying looks.

 

 

One Mystery 

 

Something’s strange about the abandoned house across the street—flashes of light late at night and small flickers of movement that only someone looking for them would see.

Everyone says the house is deserted, but Cleo is sure it isn’t, and she’s sure whoever is inside is watching her.

 

Another Secret 

 

In one night, Belleza’s life changes forever. So famous, her only choice is to hide her secret from the world so she can silence small town bigotry.

Then Cleo happens.

 

14+ due to adult situations

 

Buy Links:     Evernight Teen    Amazon   Buy in Print

 

Excerpt:

It had been a terrible and very long journey from that tragic Christmas to now, and I couldn’t think about losing another one of us. We’d each done all we could to live without Aziza.

Dad went as far away as possible from where the accident happened. Mom sold our    house and moved us to a new town. Still, we weren’t over that December day.

Mom buried herself in her work for long hours.

Grandpa pulled into himself, wearing that glazed look he’d adopted before the funeral.

I was almost sure he’d wear that look for the rest of his life. He loved Aziza. And what wasn’t there to love? Beautiful golden girl, my mom called her, forever poking her four-year-old nose around the corner daring any of us to chase her. Teasing, begging for attention, which we gave because we couldn’t resist her…

Grandpa loved my sister a lot. I was afraid he loved me very little now.

I wasn’t so fond of myself, either. I shut out all of my Buena Vista friends and started running alone.

From the window over the kitchen sink I watched Nefertiti as she sat on the step, preening in a sunny spot around the back of the house. I went out to sit with her, stroking her fur and surveying the weedy backyard that Mom hadn’t had time to think about. She kept saying she planned to hire a gardener, but there was always something that derailed that plan. In September, it was the new show at the museum that she had to set up by October. She was in charge of staging the Egyptian pieces coming on loan, but she was shorthanded and putting in extra time to make up for only having two assistants. It was going to be a while before the toilet and other debris disappeared.

It was all too depressing to look at, so I walked around to the front and for a minute glanced at the windows of the house across the street. I almost expected to see someone staring out at me. I couldn’t shake the creeped out feeling I got every time I looked at that place.

I knelt to check my laces, and then I was racing down the street, hoping to shed old fears, old thoughts . . . at least for a while. I was at the end of the block, deciding which way to turn, when I spotted Grandpa. I went in the opposite direction, so neither one of us had to pretend that everything was all right since that letter from Dad.

The high school was only four blocks away––one of the reasons, Mom said, she chose this location. It also had one of the best academic ratings in the valley. Another reason she told me she zeroed in on our cozy cul-de-sac.

When I reached the school, I stared up at the two-storied building where I’d spend my last two years of high school. Then what? Junior college, or a job at K-Mart? I worried that I’d bomb on my SAT’s.  I’d bombed on almost everything, hadn’t I? My grades, my friends––being a sister.

I walked up the stone path, leading to the main doors, imagining that first day here, my stomach balling up with worry just on the edge of dread. That first day was going to be the worst.

Off to my right, a thick oak sheltered tables with benches, so I jogged across the lawn and sat on the wooden slats and thought about how it was going to be when school started. Everything new. Everything different. The stares all newbies get. Nobody would know who I was or why I was here. They wouldn’t know my mom was famous for her books on Egypt, or that my dad was an archeologist—the one people called when they dug up important ancientanything in the Middle East. But they’d know something was different about me the minute they heard my name. Cleopatra wasn’t on any baby name list they’d ever read. Neither was Aziza, but she was too little for her name to embarrass her. She’d only just learned what it meant. Precious. And she was that. She was.

A breeze brushed my cheek and I shivered. I thought I’d gotten over feeling that chill, but the healing process wasn’t just slow, it was uneven, too. Sometimes Aziza was only a whisper inside me, and then her image would spring from around the corner just like she used to, full of mischief and giggles. Then there would be that moment when the memory of the chilled air of our old entryway blasted across my face.

Stop it.

I jumped to my feet and jogged to the track behind the high school as fast as I could. I didn’t have a devil at my back, but I had a tiny ghost that shadowed me when I stayed still for very long.

 TOP TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME:

 

1.  Cotton or Silk? I cotton to silk. That’s mid-western/southern for “silk” is my thing.

 

 

2. Champagne/beer/wine? Wine, most definitely. Champagne makes me giggle. Beer makes me burp, and since I try to be dignified whenever possible, I go with wine because it mellows me out and makes me feel smarter than I really am.

 

 

3. Plotter/pantser Very simple. I’m an out-of-the-closet pantser! Yay! Let’s see where these characters take me.

 

 

4. Describe your workspace I have a wall of windows in my office. I love to see the forest outside while I write. I love to watch the sun or the rain or the wind while I try to find the words I need, and then, of course, I love to daydream while staring out those windows. My big desk takes up most of one wall and is always a mess.

 

5. Sports fan or just tolerate it? My grandfather made me into a baseball fan. I also like hockey and now Lacrosse because my nephew plays it . Soccer yes. Football not so much. Tennis, absolutely.

 

6. Who is your biggest influence on writing? I guess that’s the hardest question here. S. E. Hinton (love her gritty characters). F. Scott Fitzgerald (love the sound of his prose). I adored Faulkner, but struggled to understand him, still do. Dr. Seuss. He made me understand just how much fun books should be.

 

7. Favorite food – Shrimp, deep fried.
8. When did you start writing? I don’t know. Maybe when I was ten?

 

9. If money were no object, where would you like to live? Exactly where I do now. It’s perfect.

 

10. What’s next for you? On the personal side, I’m off to do some more traveling this year. Santorini, Tibet and Ireland. Writing-wise. Working on an idea for a young adult that’s been in the back of my brain for a while. It has a title. It has four characters in search of a story. Now I have to find that story.

 

Loved your questions. They made me think a bit and I liked that. Thanks so much, Pink.

 

 

 

 

About the Author:

Lee McKenzie is a native Californian who grew up in a lot of different places; then landed in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she lives with her family and miscellaneous pets—usually strays that find her rather than the other way around. She writes most of the time, gardens and hikes and does yoga a lot, and then travels whenever she can. Her favorite destinations are Turkey and Nicaragua, but because she had family in England, Switzerland, and Spain she goes there when she can. 

She takes on modern issues that today’s teens face in their daily lives. Her first young adult novel, Sliding on the Edge, which dealt with cutting and suicide was published in 2009. Her second, titled The Princess of Las Pulgas, dealing with a family who loses everything and must rebuild their lives came out in 2010. She just published her first middle grade novel titled Alligators Overhead.

WEBSITE

 

 

 

 

 

Giveaway:

$10 Evernight Teen Gift Card

 
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Cover Reveal for Dead Plains (The Zombie West series, #3) by Angela Scott

Oct 21, 2013

BLURB:

Sometimes, the ones you least suspect are the ones that should worry you the most.

People aren’t always what they seem, as Red has experienced all too well. Strangers are feared, towns are avoided, and everyone’s intentions are scrutinized… even those of the people closest to her. Her coveted ability has been revealed to far too many people, and now that a tiny heartbeat thumps and grows beneath her own, the risk has never been greater.

As the group of ten searches for a safe haven, a place to finally call home, the sobering reality of it all finally settles over them: nowhere is safe, nothing is permanent, and death is everywhere. One by one, Red’s reluctant posse grows smaller, as death claims some, and circumstance claims others.

It couldn’t be a worse time to bring a newborn into the world… but the baby is coming.

BIO:

I hear voices. Tiny fictional people sit on my shoulders and whisper their stories in my ear. Instead of medicating myself, I decided to pick up a pen, write down everything those voices tell me, and turn it into a book. I’m not crazy. I’m an author. For the most part, I write contemporary Young Adult novels. However, through a writing exercise that spiraled out of control, I found myself writing about zombies terrorizing the Wild Wild West—and loving it. My zombies don’t sparkle, and they definitely don’t cuddle. At least, I wouldn’t suggest it.

I live on the benches of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with two lovely children, one teenager, and a very patient husband. I graduated from Utah State University with a B.A. degree in English, not because of my love for the written word, but because it was the only major that didn’t require math. I can’t spell, and grammar is my arch nemesis. But they gave me the degree, and there are no take backs.

ONLINE LINKS:

Website: www.angelascottauthor.com

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AngelaScottWriter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascott_author

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/AngelaScott

BUY NOW LINK:

• Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Plains-Zombie-West-ebook/dp/B00FNH2MLA/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1381367002&sr=1-5&keywords=Angela+Scott

Cover Reveal for No Turning Back by Casey Peeler – Giveaway/Excerpt

Sep 5, 2013

Giveaway: (2- $25 Amazon Giftcards, 3-copies of No Turning Back, 3-ecopies of Undescribable, 1- Giftcard to Paperclutch.com)  Rafflecopter Link is at the bottom of the post.  Good Luck!

ABOUT NO TURNING BACK (Full Circle #1):

After getting involved with Dylan, the bad boy of the Dixon High Swim team, Charley decides to stay close to home for college. It’s just safer that way. Until she realizes it’s a mistake… just like dating Dylan. She decides to put the past behind her and leave the small hick town of Grassy Pond. There is only one problem; she makes this decision 3 weeks before Fall Semester starts.

Charley packs up her Honda and heads to Southern College.  On the morning she’s about to leave, Cash walks back into her life. He has been her best friend since they were 4 and is the only one that knows the REAL Charley. She leaves her farm in Grassy Pond with all kinds of “what ifs?”

Charley decides to live her college career to the fullest. She finds a great group of friends, joins the swim team, and meets a guy named Joe. He’s got eyes that make ya wanna melt!

There is only one problem…Charley has been away from home for only 48 hours before she breaks the 2 promises she made to herself. Will she be able to overcome her past? Find new love? What will happen with Cash now that he is back in her life? Will she find what she is wanting in Jack-a-lope Joe? How will her First semester end?… Joe, Cash, or alone?

Excerpt:

As we make our way to the door, Georgia slips on the gravel.  She starts laughing and the rest of us do as well once we help her up.

“Y’all, I think the ground and curbs are out to get me.  I mean they come out of nowhere.  The next thing I know, I’m on my ass again!”  Georgia is a hoot.  She always makes light of situations.

Hank’s Tavern is not exactly what I pictured.  It’s an old, worn down, wooden shed.  There are five parking spaces in front of the restaurant section of the place.  The rest of the parking lot is located across the road in a gravel lot.  It’s gravel, no pavement anywhere.  The bouncers are dressed in jeans and Hank’s Tavern t-shirts that fit just a little snug around their arms showing off their muscles.  They ask for our IDs, take a brief glance, and in we go.  I will have to say, the guys don’t get in quite as easy.  They get patted down and driver’s license checked.  Sometimes it pays to be a female.

We enter through another set of glass doors and immediately cigarette smoke and stale beer hit my nostrils.  The room is open except for a few pool tables and the bar.  It is dark, lights are flashing, and the music is bumping.  We do exactly what any group of girls would do, walk straight to the bathroom.  You have got to kidding me!  No door really!  There is no freakin’ door on the last stall.  After taking a few minutes to get over the negative stall and freshen up, we walk out and head straight to the dance floor.

I have to say that this is exactly redneck meets ghetto fabulous.  Whoever thought a place like this would play Mystikal, Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, throw in a little “Downtown” by Lady A and Old Crow Medicine Show?  We have the best time just dancing in a big group.  I notice Crystal and Lucas on the floor; she smiles and waves before continuing to do things she should be embarrassed to be doing in public.  I am so thankful that I don’t have to deal with that in my room.  That is one benefit to her dating an Resident Assistant… he has his own room.

By midnight, Hank’s is packed.  I decide to grab a bottle of water, and as I’m about to pay, I hear that oh so sexy voice.

“I got that.”

“It’s okay, Joe.  I got it.”

“No, I insist.  I was an ass earlier.  I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.  It’s the least I could do.”

“Damn straight!  I’m proud of who I am and where I’m from.  I just hate when damn Yankees come down here and then try to make us look like hicks.  You don’t like the way we live, then don’t cross the Mason-Dixon,” I say as playful as possible.  It did tick me off earlier, but I don’t want him to think I’m a bitch.

“I swear I won’t do it again, and nobody is gonna pick on you eating squirrel but me,” he says with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll give ya that.”

“So Squirrel, you wanna dance?”

“Mr. Scaredy Cat, I’d love to.”  He takes the water bottle from me and leads me to the dance floor.

About Casey Peeler:

Casey Peeler grew up and still lives in North Carolina with her husband and daughter. Her first passion is teaching students with special needs. Over the years, she found her way to relax was in a good book.

After reading Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston her senior year of high school and multiple Nicholas Sparks novels, she found a hidden love and appreciation for reading.

Casey has been an avid reader, blogger (Hardcover Therapy,) and now writer. No Turning Back(Full Circle #1) is her debut novel releasing this September 30th with Finding Charley (Full Circle #2) releasing Spring 2014.

Her goal is to one day be an author that is recognized nationwide like Jamie McGuire, Colleen Hoover, Tiffany King, and Amanda Bennett.

When Casey isn’t reading, you can find her listening to country music, spending the day at the lake, being a wife, dance mom, and spending time with friends and family.

Her perfect day consists of water, sand between her toes, a cold beverage, and a great book!

Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/caseypeelerauthor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/AuthorCasey

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cdpeeler81/no-turning-back-sneak-peaks/ 

Add No Turning Back (Full Circle #1) to your TRB on Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/16117017-casey-peeler
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Cover Reveal for Wish I May by Lexi Ryan – Giveaway/Excerpt

Sep 5, 2013

GIVEAWAY:

Lexi is offering up 5 copies of her novel, UNBREAK ME, for some lucky winners.  Rafflecopter Link is at the bottom of the post.  Good luck!

WISH I MAY by Lexi Ryan

October 2013

Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18365945-wish-i-may

BOOK SUMMARY:

I grew up wishing on stars.

My father taught me to believe…in destiny, in magic, in happily ever after. Dreams were my scripture and the starry night sky was my temple. Then Mom stopped believing, left him, and took us with her. At the age of sixteen, I cashed in my dreams to pay the rent, pawned my destiny to keep my sisters together.

Now, seven years later, I’m returning home, grieving the death of my mother, and settling my sisters back into the life Mom threw away. I never intended to stay. I don’t want to deal with my father, who is so invested in the spiritual world he forgets the physical. I don’t want to face William Bailey, whose eyes remind me of the girl I was, the things I’ve done, and the future I lost.

This would all be easier if Will hated me. As it is, I have to hold my secrets close so they won’t hurt him more than they’ve already hurt me. But he wants to be in my life. He wants what I can’t bring myself to confess I sold. He wants me.

I find myself looking to my stars again…wondering if I dare one more wish.

Excerpt from WISH I MAY

© 2013 by Lexi Ryan

I can hardly breathe. My brain doesn’t have time for something as trivial as oxygen when it’s so busy cataloguing her features, memorizing the exact shade of her mocha eyes, warring with the anger and regret that have sprung to life as if they never left me to begin with.

I never thought I’d see her again. I didn’t think I wanted to.

The moment I step closer, I realize my mistake. Being near her is like a sip of water to desert-parched lips. It whips something through me—memories, lust, first love. Heartbreak. She tilts her lips up to mine, and I actually think for one goddamned ridiculous minute that I might kiss her, that I want to. That I would swallow all my pride and forgive her for just one taste.

I step back before I can give in to the impulse, and her cheeks blaze to life, her blush as cute as the rest of her. That’s the word for her: cute. Sweet smile and peppy ponytail, she exudes cuteness.

Except her ass. Her ass doesn’t even land in the same stratosphere as cute, and those tight little pants do nothing to hide its soft, round curves. And her breasts. There’s definitely nothing cute about the way her T-shirt stretches across their fullness. Or her go-for-miles legs. Not to mention the narrow strip of skin exposed between her shirt and pants. Just looking at the single inch of flesh below her navel, and I practically taste strawberry wine on my tongue.

Moonlight. Her warm skin under my tongue. The sound of her moan as my tongue dips lower.

The memory grabs hold of my senses and won’t let go.

Fuck. I can’t even lie to myself. Nothing about her says cute. Everything about her says sex. And mine.

Author Information

 

Site – http://www.lexiryan.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/writerlexiryan

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2856947.Lexi_Ryan

Facebook Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/lexiryanauthor

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