Have Yourself a Slow Burn little Christmas... with Julie Anne Long of After Dark with the Duke

Have Yourself a Slow Burn little Christmas...

I think readers who savor slow-burn, exquisitely tense romances savor them for the same reasons we traditionally disguise our holiday gifts in shiny paper and ribbon: We instinctively understand that anticipation and the element of surprise heighten pleasure and amplify that ultimate delicious payoff—whether we're unwrapping a brand new air fryer, or, for instance, a smolderingly stern duke. And it's why advent calendars are such a fun tradition—no matter how old we are, we all get an undeniably pleasant little charge in discovering what's behind each little door of the calendar, right up until the big day. 

#Interview with Melinda Leigh of Her Second Death + #Giveaway

Interview with Author Melinda Leigh

Detective Bree Taggert is one of your most popular characters. What is it about her that makes readers come back for more of her story? 

Bree is strong and smart, but she’s also flawed and vulnerable. She begins the series as an excellent homicide detective but personally empty. A horrific childhood tragedy distanced Bree from her family and made her a loner. Her sister’s murder triggers the desire to change that. Bree takes on her sister’s case—and her sister’s kids. Bree sees her own childhood reflected in her niece and nephew and is determined not to let them grow up as damaged as she is. In order to do that, she needs to make herself vulnerable. In accepting responsibility for the children, she starts her own road to healing. 

Holiday Short Stories Featuring Rainbow Rowell, Suzanne Redfearn, J. Courtney Sullivan & Chandler Baker + #Giveaway

Ring in the Holidays with Excerpts from Festive Reads by Bestselling Authors Rainbow Rowell, Suzanne Redfearn, J. Courtney Sullivan, and Chandler Baker.

This winter, rejoice in a festival of entertaining new tales from Amazon Original Stories. Unwrap unique short reads by bestselling authors to keep your holiday season merry and bright. Visit AMAZON to browse a curated selection of stories—free for Prime Members and Kindle Unlimited Subscribers—and read on for excerpts from the titles by Rainbow Rowell, Suzanne Redfearn, J. Courtney Sullivan, and Chandler Baker. 

After a long, lonely year, two people stumble toward each other in If the Fates Allow a holiday short story by Rainbow Rowell the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl.

Read an #Excerpt from Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh

About the Book

Someone Perfect 
(Westcott #9) 
by Mary Balogh
Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Published November 30th 2021 by Berkley
ASINB08XQ3JV54

Sometimes, just one person can pull a whole family apart. And sometimes, it just takes one person to pull it back together. For fans of Bridgerton, New York Times bestselling Regency Romance author Mary Balogh shows how love truly conquers all in this new Friends of the Westcotts novel.

As a young man, Justin Wiley was banished by his father for mysterious reasons, but now, his father is dead, and Justin has been Earl of Brandon for six years. A dark, dour man, he, nonetheless, takes it as his responsibility to care for his half-sister, Maria, when her mother dies. He travels to her home to fetch her back to the family seat at Everleigh Park.

Although she adored him, once, Maria now loathes Justin, and her friend, Lady Estelle Lamarr, can see, immediately, how his very name upsets her. When Justin arrives and invites Estelle and her brother to accompany Maria to Everleigh Park to help with her distress, she begrudgingly agrees, for Maria's sake.
As family secrets unravel in Maria's homecoming, Justin, too, uncovers his desire for a countess. And, while he may believe he's found an obvious candidate in the beautiful 25-year-old Lady Estelle, she is most certain that they could never make a match...

AMAZON | B&N 

Read an #Excerpt from Child of Mine by Karen Grey

About the Book

Child of Mine 
(Boston Classics #4)
by Karen Grey 
Kindle Edition
Published December 1st 2021 by Home Cooked Books
ASINB09HJFYJWP

The bigger the secret, the harder it is to hide.

Single mom Isabella York was a celebrity before she had her first kiss, her first date, or her first sip of alcohol. Playing the bad girl—both on and off the set—made up for lost time, but the consequences were life-changing. Back home in Boston, with her “checkered past” behind her, all she wants is to raise her little girl far from the spotlight. After all, revealing her secrets could mean losing everything.
For her, and her daughter.

It’s not that Henry Smith hates kids—they don’t like him. Meanwhile, he’s stuck producing children’s TV, so he’s doing the best he can to be less of a grouch. Not everyone gets a second chance to chase his dream, and if he plays his cards right at this new gig, he can move on to making television that will change the world, not just entertain a bunch of brats.

Even better, he just might be able to talk the woman he never thought he’d see again into greenlighting a do-over.

In this sexy, heartwarming, Secret Baby, 80’s throwback romcom, a Sunshine-Grumpy pair has to face the past before they can find their future… together. 

AMAZON | B&N 

🍷🍷🍷.5 #Review of Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

Title: Ice Planet Barbarians
Series: Ice Planet Barbarians #1
Author: Ruby Dixon
Format: Kindle, 336 pages
Publication: November 30th 2021 by Berkley Books (first published April 3rd 2015)
ISBN-13: 0593546024

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

Reviewer: Crystal 

Source: NetGalley 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Wine Glasses 

🍷🍷🍷.5

Fall in love with the out-of-this-world romance between Georgie Carruthers, a human woman, and Vektal, an alien from another planet, in this expanded edition with bonus materials and an exclusive epilogue--in print only!

You'd think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you'd be wrong. Because now the aliens are having ship trouble, and they've left their cargo of human women--including me--on an ice planet.

We're not equipped for life in this desolate winter wasteland. Since I'm the unofficial leader, I head out into the snow to look for help.

I find help all right. A big blue horned alien introduces himself in a rather . . . startling way. Vektal says that I'm his mate, his chosen female--and that the reason his chest is purring is because of my presence. He'll help me and my people survive, but this poses a new problem.

If Vektal helps us survive, I'm not sure he's going to want to let me go. 

Crystal's Thoughts

I don't read too many sci-fi/alien romance books, but for some reason this one caught my eye. Ice Planet Barbarians turned out to be a fun, but some times dark, story that was both intriguing and titillating.