Read an #Excerpt from Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson

Perfectly timed for the King’s Coronation, a royally-adjacent romance inspired by real life publishes: FALLING HARD FOR THE ROYAL GUARD by Megan Clawson!

About the Book

Falling Hard for the Royal Guard
by Megan Clawson
Format 384 pages, Paperback
Published May 2, 2023 by Avon
ISBN 9780008554415 (ISBN10: 0008554412)

Love is in the heir in this royally good rom com debut releasing in Spring 2023 – perfect for anyone who likes relatable heroines (with great hair), hot and aloof book boyfriends (with great hats), near misses, almost kisses and a corgi or two.

Despite living in an actual castle, happily ever after is evading Margaret ‘Maggie’ Moore.
From her bedroom in the Tower of London, twenty-six-year-old Maggie has always dreamed of her own fairy-tale ending.

Yet this is twenty-first century London, so instead of knights on white horses, she has catfish on Tinder. And with her last relationship ending in spectacular fashion, she swears off men for good.
And then a chance encounter with Royal Guard Freddie forces Maggie to admit that she isn’t ready to give up on love just yet… But how do you catch the attention of someone who is trained to ignore all distractions?

Can she snare that true love’s first kiss… or is she royally screwed?

A right royal rom com, perfect for fans of Red, White and Royal Blue and The Royal We.

AMAZON | B&N 

Read an #Excerpt from Best Men by Sidney Karger

BEST MEN is an irresistible gay love story set in New York City following what happens when “boy meets girl’s fiancé’s brother”—think Bridesmaids meets Bros.

About the Book

Best Men
by Sidney Karger
Format: 368 pages, Paperback
Published: May 2, 2023 by Berkley
ISBN: 9780593439487 (ISBN10: 0593439481)

When two best men in a wedding party fall for each other, they realize love isn't a piece of cake in this hilarious and heartfelt romantic comedy debut by screenwriter Sidney Karger.

Max Moody thought he had everything figured out. He's trying to live his best life in New York City and has the best friend a gay guy could ask for: Paige. She and Max grew up next door to each other in the suburbs of Chicago. She can light up any party. She finishes his sentences. She's always a reliable splunch (they don't like to use the word brunch) partner. But then Max's whole world is turned upside down when Paige suddenly announces some huge news: she's engaged and wants Max to be her man of honor. Max was always the romantic one who imagined he would get married before the unpredictable Paige and is shocked to hear she's ready to settle down. But it turns out there's not just one new man in Paige's life--there are two.

There's the groom, Austin, who's a perfectly nice guy. Then there's his charming, fun and ridiculously handsome gay younger brother, Chasten, who is Austin's best man. As Paige's wedding draws closer, Max, the introverted Midwesterner, and Chasten, the social butterfly East Coaster, realize they're like oil and water. Yet they still have to figure out how to coexist in Paige's life while not making her wedding festivities all about them. But can the tiny romantic spark between these two very different guys transform their best man supporting roles into the leading best men in each other's lives?

AMAZON | B&N 

Read an #Excerpt from Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

This summer, Carley is back with another sweeping lakeside romance that capture the magic of young love, second chances, and adolescent summers where all things seem possible.

About the Book

Meet Me at the Lake
by Carley Fortune
Format: 336 pages, Paperback
Published: May 2, 2023 by Viking
ISBN: 9780735243781 

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn't.

At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort--something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin.
She needs a plan--a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern's going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern's not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?

AMAZON | B&N 

Read an #Excerpt from Ghostly Game by Christine Feehan

It’s fight or flight in this sultry, suspenseful GhostWalker novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.

About the Book

Ghostly Game  
GhostWalkers #19
by Christine Feehan 
Format: 397 pages, Kindle Edition
Published: May 2, 2023 by Berkley

Gideon "Eagle" Carpenter is used to rolling with the punches life has thrown at him. It's the only thing that's kept him alive. He and his team of GhostWalkers have seen and experienced it all. He does his best to live with all the sins written on his soul. Then he hears the laughter of a woman with the ability to erase--even for a few previous moments--the darkness of his past.

Laurel "Rory" Chappel has always been a nomad. She's accustomed to taking care of herself, despite the physical challenges she lives with. She thinks she's too weak to find real love, but that doesn't stop her interest in Gideon from turning into a full-on addiction. He's all rough edges and danger contrasted with a tenderness that makes her feel safe. Still, after a life spent in motion, she's not sure she knows how to stay in one place.

Gideon hopes he can persuade Rory to take a chance on him with every electric touch. But soon, life conspires against him, forcing the GhostWalker to risk everything to protect the woman he loves....

AMAZON | B&N 

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 ARC Audiobook #Review of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Title: The Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean #1
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Format: Audiobook
Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
Published: May 2, 2023 by Entangled Publishing, LLC (Red Tower Books)
ISBN: 9781649374042
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Crystal
Source: NetGalley
Rating:  5/5
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Crystal’s Thoughts

“Are you going to die a scribe? Or live as a rider?”

Welcome to Basgiath War College, where only the toughest survive the trials to become a dragon rider, and even then, your life is not guaranteed. Violet Sorrengail always thought that she would follow in her late father’s footsteps as a scribe for the realm, but when she is set to enter the Scribe Quadrant, she finds out that her mother, General Sorrengail, has other plans for her. Thrust into the Riders Quadrant where it’s fight or die, Violet knows that her size and frail health automatically put her at a disadvantage, but her name just may put an even bigger of a target on her back. The only person she can trust is her childhood friend, Dain, a second-year squad leader.  But when he can’t see past her faults, she begins to question their relationship, especially when wing leader Xaden Riorson, a man that should want her dead, seems to be the only one who truly sees her. When danger escalates outside the borders though, Violet wonders at the truth her and her fellow cadets are being taught. Is leadership hiding something, and did her father somehow know what it was before his death? Violet finds that she can’t trust anyone in this deadly game of survival.

🍷🍷🍷🍷.5 ARC #Review of The Stolen Throne by Abigail Owen

Title: The Stolen Throne
Series: Dominions #2
Author: Abigail Owen 
Format: 460 pages, ebook
Publication: May 2, 2023
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N 
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Crystal
Rating: 4.5/5

🍷🍷🍷🍷.5

My twin sister is the true queen of Aryd. She survives, hiding and clinging to life in the desert, while I reign as the false queen alongside the monstrous King Eidolon. There’s only one escape from this gilded prison: Reven. My Shadowraith. My heart. Only the shadows that he struggles to control are growing more sinister, more powerful.

It’s just a matter of time before they turn on him…and on me.

Even escape doesn’t mean true freedom, though, when we’re still on the run from Eidolon’s unstoppable armies. And when we discover there’s a traitor among us, I have no choice…I must become the queen I was never meant to be.

Because as one evil hunts me, the other loves me more than himself.

And my fate lies with both.

Crystal’s Thoughts:

“The taste of him, the feel of him, is like coming home.”

The Stolen Throne is the continuation of the spellbinding tale of twin sisters, one meant to rule, and one meant to stand in, a nefarious king set on destruction, and a shadow who was never meant to love. Following the events of The Lair’s Crown, Meren finds herself the captive of King Eidolon and once again posing as the Queen of Aryd. How much longer can she pull it off though before her sister’s husband demands more than she is willing to give? Eidolon is no fool. Meren knows that she just needs to bide her time until her Shadowraith finds her, or until she can find a way out herself. Escape turns out to be the least of her problems though when histories are rewritten, truths are revealed, treachery abounds, and lives are at stake. Meren must reach deep to find the power and the will inside her if she hopes to stop Eidolon and save those she loves, including her Shadowraith.