New Adult Mystery & Romance by Darlene Gardner

This is a new series by my fabulous former critique partner Darlene Gardner.  Her stories were always a pleasure to critique, her prose smooth, her grammar and punctuation always clean.

I'm no longer in the same state as she is, but we keep in touch and I'm excited by the new direction she's going in.  We've both gotten the New Adult fever.  My A Perfect Secret Series starts in August, but you can pick up Darlene's New Adult Serial now.  The first book, Illusion is free today only!  Grab it up!

Here's the blurb:

Do you know who your friends are?

Jade remembers nothing but static for the forty-eight hours after she was hit on the head and went missing. Nobody in her beachside hometown believes it even happened.

Town gossip is that Jade hasn’t been quite right since her stepfather was convicted of armed robbery. Loud whispers proclaim Jade’s following in the footsteps of her schizophrenic mother.

Jade’s only ally is Max Harper, a stranger she can neither trust nor resist.

But things about Max don’t add up. Like why does he turn up wherever  Jade is? Why is he so evasive? And why do people around him keep ending up dead?

Only two things are certain: People in town aren’t who they seem.

And things for Jade are about to get much, much worse.

Here's a little bit about her and you can check out her awesomeness at her website here: 

Darlene Gardner no longer spends her days waiting for an athlete to say something interesting. Nope. Now she makes up her own quotes and torments teenagers. Fictional teenagers. Promise.

Although leaving her life as a newspaper sportswriter behind for love and romance worked out pretty well, she’s veering off in a haunting new direction with the Dead Ringers eBook serial, landing at a beachside carnival where evil lurks and nothing is as it seems.

Darlene has more than thirty books in print, from single-title romantic comedies to emotionally charged family dramas. Updated editions of her romcoms, as well as a couple romantic mysteries, are available for the eBook market.

 

Book Lovers' Buffet: Bouquet of Books Sale!

May 1-3, 3 days only! 150 books, great authors for only .99 each!  Visit www.bookloversbuffet.net 

Here's a snippet of The Beckoning of Beautiful Things by Calinda B.

"Turn on the Lights.  Let your electricity flow."

"Are you sure?"

"Just try it. We can stop it if it gets to be too much.

She swallowed, closed her eyes. Pigment infused with electricity. Brilliant electric flashes. Northern lights. Lightning storms. Sensation surged through her limbs, and her eyes shot open. Electromagnetic impulses arched and sizzled along her skin with a color display like the Aurora Borealis. The color drops splashed to the ground with a hot sizzle. "Mega wow."

"How does it feel?"

"It's shooting up and down my neck.  It's like your mouth sliding up and down my neck, buzzing with current."

And here is a snippet of my WIP, Hounded, Book #3 in the Going to the Dogs Series. Available in June!  Leashed, Book #1 is part of the sale and is only .99!  See where it all started.

She rose, smoothing out the full skirt of the apple motif dress she wore.  The rows of different apples made her feel like a demented snow white.  She was sure Snow never wore razor blade earrings though.  One of the guys punched him in the shoulder and he smiled and headed her way.

“Hey,” he said as he approached, sweat running down over the tantalizing planes of his cheekbones, to his hard jaw.  Normally she wouldn’t find that intriguing, but it slipped down his thick neck and rode along his clavicle, soaking into his t-shirt.

“Did you know the clavicle is the only bone in the human body that lies horizontally?”

“Huh?”

Oh God.  Had she said that out loud?  The…clavicle…um…collarbone.  She reached up and slid her fingertips along the ridge of bone, his skin moist, warm and soft.  Then she wanted to smack herself in the head.  She jerked her hand away.  What possessed her to touch him?  Compulsion.  Sheer stupidity.  Her awkward social skills?

“I like your clavicle, too,” he said softly and there went her lungs again, compressing from his g-force-like voice.  In that dress and those kick ass heels, you look like a bad ass Betty Boop.  Good enough to eat.”

Some of the featured authors are:

Me, of course!

Lisa Kessler

Laura Kaye

Gemma Halliday

Amanda Brice

and many more!

There will be prizes as well! Enter here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Close Up Magic: My Dream Come True & Contest!

Please welcome Michelle Garren Flye to talk about her dream magic book!

First of all, thank you to Zoe Dawson for having me on her blog! It’s so great to be here, meeting new people and talking about my new book.

I’ve dreamed about writing a good story about magic for years and this summer, that dream comes true. Close Up Magic will be available for reader consumption on June 1.
 

I don’t know why it took me so long to write a good story about magic. I’ve been trying most of my life. I wrote about things like unicorns and fairies when I was a child. I expanded to ghosts and vampires later on. None of that stuff was what I really wanted it to be…although I think I did come close with a werewolf short story once.

What’s different this time? What makes Close Up Magic what I consider good when everything else fell short?

I think it’s because I let go of the fantastic and wrote about the magic I know. Love. I just made the hero, Andre, a magician.

Last October, I got the opportunity to see David Copperfield’s show in Las Vegas. Another of my dreams come true since I’ve admired him since I was a kid. I probably watched every one of his television specials, and I think I fell in love with him when I was about eight years old. Of course, the age difference was a problem, so it never really worked out.

The funny thing was, I didn’t know I was going to see David Copperfield when I went to Vegas, and I already had Close Up Magic pretty much outlined in preparation for National Novel Writing Month in November. So I can’t really say he was the inspiration for the novel, but I can say his show inspired me. It pretty much lit a much-needed fire under me so I was champing at the bit to WRITE when November 1 rolled around.

And my story was born.

Along the way, I learned a lot of really cool stuff about magic. Like the origin of the old pulling the rabbit out of the hat trick was in the 1700s when a woman in England claimed to have given birth to a litter of white rabbits. Of course, she achieved a lot of notoriety for this (much as our own reality stars become famous), but was eventually charged with fraud and admitted to it. A local magician, however, capitalized on her story, advertising that he would perform the “Birth of a Rabbit”. And he did just that, borrowing a top hat from an audience member and producing a live rabbit from it.

I’ve been posting a lot of the tidbits I’ve learned on a Facebook page for Close Up Magic ( https://www.facebook.com/CloseUpMagicFlye), and the great thing about it is, if you like that page, you’re automatically entered to win a Kindle Paperwhite I’ll be giving away on my blog (http://michellegflye.com).  Also, I’ll enter anyone who comments on this page in the contest, but please leave me a way to contact you! If you want even more ways to enter to win, check out the rules here: http://michellegflye.com/2013/04/13/having-fun-with-magic-wanna-join-me-contest/ .

So tell me, do you believe in magic or is it all tricks? And even if it is a trick, do you care? Isn’t it worth it if the magician can make you believe in something beyond reality for a while?

Book Spotlight: Broken Faith by Brandy Nacole

This was it.  The moment Heaven and Hell would clash.  But which unearthly being would win?  The Fallen Angel or the Hell Hounds?

Overtaken by fear, I close my eyes.

Kayson is a Fallen Angel who has spent decades running from the Hell Hounds while searching for something that no one else believes can be so, not even God.  Kayson is determined to find a Blood Child.  But when a hound finds Kayson first, he is sure his end has come.

Falon, Alpha of the Hell Hounds, destroyer of the blood children, and devoted believer in his master’s plan, is bound and determined to drag Kayson back to Hell with him.

Sabrina is a Vampire, a half-breed created from one of Lucifer’s original blood children.  After years of hiding, Sabrina’s fate changes when she finds Kayson barely alive. Against her instincts, Sabrina saves him.  Now she and Kayson are both marked by the Hell Hounds.

Emma is an ordinary human, whose only problem is making ends meet, and getting over the hurt caused by her untrustworthy brother.  Her everyday problems become supernatural ones when she finds Kayson and Sabrina hiding in her parent’s backyard shed.

Kayson, Sabrina and Emma are unlikely allies, thrown together by chance to fight against the most powerful creatures of the underworld in order to follow their world-changing quest.  But will the broken faith of one break the faith of all?

Broken Faith will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBookstore on April 2nd.

For a limited time, Broken Faith will be on sale for 0.99 

Here are some reviews that are already in

"Loved it! I loved the story back ground about the angels and the fallen. How the blood children came to be was AWESOME!!! The story flowed, gave you the perfect amount of back ground info. It just sucked me right in!"  -Carrie, ARC reader

"OMG! Brandy Nacole never seems to disappoint~! This was AMAZING!!! In this new Spiritual, Supernatural twist, has took me on a ride like NO other and BLOWN ME AWAY! Just like all the other books Brandy has written! This one Truly ROCKED!"

-Alicia, ARC reader

"This story a epic battle of faith and good will, that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  Make this your book to read this year it's a must read!!!"  -Jacquelyn, ARC reader

Where you can find Brandy:

Facebook 

Blog 

Goodreads (There's a handy button for you to use!)

 

Sounds good, Brandy.  I'm getting my copy!