Tactical Heart

Title: Tactical Heart

Author: S.K. Rose

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Release Date: August 22, 2019

My name is Scarlett Mavis. I have a sweet tooth, no filters, and video games are my life.

Let me clarify that last part: They’re not a hobby; they’re not a way to kill the time; They. Are. My. LIFE.

Where family, men, and humans, in general, have failed me, video games are always there waiting for me to return to their warm and accepting embrace.

In real life I may be a heartbroken geek, but put a controller in my hands and I become an indestructible warrior.

What else does a girl really need?

Enter player two, Kane Decker.

Handsome, nerdy, incredible kisser, and just my type. Our first date was perfect in every way.

Then, like always, reality came crashing down with one simple truth. 

He wasn’t my teammate; he was the enemy. And there’s nothing I’m better at than taking out a rival player.

But this isn’t a game, and the stakes are all too real.

For the first time in my life, I may have met my match.

Game on.

Red Hatter Book Blog - “OMG. TATICAL HEART IS AMAZING! I laughed so hard throughout this entire story.”

Cali Gals - “WTH?! I am dying here. This book is SO FLIPPING GOOD!”

Naughty Librarian Blog - “S.K. Rose hit it out the fucking park with her first ROMCOM”

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S.K. Rose lives in the hellish desert of Arizona with her newly appointed husband and two obnoxious cats. When she’s not writing, Rose enjoys reading, gaming, swearing like a drunk sailor, collecting swords, and obsessing over the magnificent sea creature: the octopus. Remember the Reaper is her debut series with many more to come.

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Finally Home

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. L. Simpson will be awarding $10 Boroughs Bucks to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

HEART AND SOUL

Ben McTavish is besotted when he sees a vixen in striped leggings own a cringe-worthy moment and turn it into a hilarious bit. He can’t stop thinking about her even though he puts his foot in his mouth every time he tries to get to know her. Ben would love to spend some time with this woman who has captivated him, but he needs to get his farm established before the bank takes back the land.

Kate Bloomington is all about whipping her life into shape, including getting to know her grandmother who she is now caring for. When she meets Ben, also known as Saint McT since he helps all comers, she pushes him away. Somehow, he shows up at every inopportune moment, mortifying her and enticing her at the same time. She learns that he needs help as much as she does, and together they create a love that is unbreakable.

Read an Excerpt

“What’s on your mind?” he asked after I’d been standing at the kettle long after it had boiled.

“Ah…” I muttered, caught off guard and not able to come up with a ready answer. Sensing my indecision, he turned me around then lifted me onto the kitchen bench, coming to stand between my legs. In this position, I was at his height, and I appreciated how handsome he was at this angle. His hair was even more mussed than usual, and I remembered I’d had my hands in it, holding him close as he’d made me come. His eyes looked into mine, and they were open and appreciative with a hint of a smile. He wasn’t laughing at me, but I sensed he knew the direction of my thoughts.

“Tell me what you want, Kate,” he said quietly as his gaze dropped to my lips.

“You. I want you. And I want you to stay, but I don’t know what to do about it.” The words fell out of my mouth as I looked at his lips that were now giving me a sexy smile.

“Why don’t you know what to do? Ask me.”

“You might think I’m easy.”

“Never.”

“You might think I’m going to put out, and I want to but I… maybe… don’t know what I’m doing. And I think you do,” I said. I didn’t see the point in lying. He could be trusted with the truth.

“Well, what happens if I say yes? Do you think I’m easy and will put out?” he murmured as he rubbed my thighs.

“Of course not,” I answered.

“And how do you know I know what I’m doing?”

“Because I’m on fire when you look at me, and when you touch me, I’m only seconds away from coming apart.”

As I said this, he sucked in a breath, like what I said hit a target he didn’t know he had.

“Will you stay with me?” I whispered right before I kissed him. It started slow and sweet, until his tongue slipped into my mouth, and tangled with mine. Then he increased the intensity. Before long I was clinging to him, needing more, desperate for contact.

About the Author: As a girl growing up in Australia, Laura was lost in the world of Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. During high school, volleyball dominated her life. There had to be something positive about being 6’1” with red hair. Representing Australia from a young age she eventually took a scholarship at the University of Iowa. Living in America and being a full time athlete in a college town was an eye-opening experience and lots of fun (from what she can remember). #gohawkeyes

Returning from the States, her career took a different turn as she started working at the Red Cross and completed her Masters of Law in Human Rights. As one of the few non-lawyers in the class, her essays were far more floral than the rest, something that caused the discerning professors to shake their heads. Through working and studying, she realised there are other ways to win hearts and minds.

While she’s spent the last 14 years as an advocate against poverty and homelessness, the desire to change the world through storytelling has only got stronger. She now lives in the Alpine Valleys of North East Victoria, Australia with her husband, daughter, son, two dogs and seven chooks. When she’s not doing the whole mum thing, working at a homelessness agency, renovating her farmhouse, or trying to do laundry bleary-eyed at midnight, she is writing.

Say G’day to Laura:

website: http://www.lsimpsonauthor.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/l.simpson.romance
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lsimpsonauthor
instagram: http://www.instagram.com/lsimpsonauthor
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-simpson-47278971

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Finally-Home-Alpine-Valleys-Simpson/dp/1951055020/ref=sr_1_1

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Alice: A Memoir

Alice, a Memoir

by Alice Gilmore 

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GENRE: Non-fiction

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BLURB:

Few, if anyone, could have had a life like Alice Gilmore. It was almost unbelievable yet carried on under the cover of a respectable middle-class existence.

You might strongly disapprove of what she did, but Alice was determined. She overcame insurmountable obstacles to keep the love she longed for.

Her single-minded fight to live out her love makes a gripping, riveting story that one eminent literary person called ‘staggeringly readable’. It is shocking. Her methods will upset some, but are you with her or against her? Your decision.

This is no misery memoir. It’s a story told with joy, wit and fervour – the astonishing story of the overwhelming love Alice Gilmour was determined to live out.

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EXCERPT

I am going to tell you our story, my darlings. It is really only for you three and one other (you know who) but I can’t help hoping that the world will read it, which is why I shall probably publish it. But not for some years. When you’re fully grown up and have flown the nest. God knows what they will make of it, the world I mean, whoever they are, but I am not suggesting that any rules or taboos should be changed by our story, or new rules made. Leave all that alone. Our story, perhaps I should say my story, just is. You could tritely call it the exception that proves the rule. Perhaps that is just what it is: unique. I doubt that but it is certainly extraordinary. I have carefully chosen those words. Any old event of yawning banality is called ‘amazing’, ‘fantastic’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘fabulous’ in our current jargon. Whatever else people may call my story it is certainly extraordinary. 

It is, above all, a love story, an all-consuming love story, though I have never felt consumed by love, rather continually renewed. But isn’t that what love should do to you? Consume you and renew you constantly like the phoenix. And it brought with it another constant emotion: fear. And pain. The fear of pain. The fear of the pain of losing it, this wonderful state. The word love doesn’t fully express what I/we felt. Another word that is more or less totally debased.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

If you want to know about my life and background read this book. I can scarcely add to what I have written about myself in there. I earnestly hope that the rest of my life is too uneventful to even consider writing anything else, I am no novelist. The life I have described was full enough and rich enough for me. God knows what I would come out with if I had to invent. If you find you need a good chef I shall consider anything not too energetic – which rules out most jobs in the kitchen.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/100110001-alice-gilmore

https://www.facebook.com/alice.gilmore.92775

https://twitter.com/AlicetheWife1

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alice-a-memoir-alice-gilmore/1131732791

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/940716

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/alice-a-memoir

https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Memoir-Gilmore-ebook/dp/B07S8HK65K/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

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Beyond the Book: Pets

I’ve had pets ever since I was a little girl. In fact I remember my first pet, a little black and white spotted terrier that in my part of the South we called a fiest. Her name was Peanut. I remember what a good mama that dog was. She had a litter of puppies that died, and she took our cat’s kittens away and tried to raise them herself. 

One of my favorite pets was a little Siamese cat called Spooky because we got her at Halloween. She was more like a dog than you’d believe. She loved playing fetch with a small ball. One night I woke in the night to the sound of someone in the bathroom. My husband was still in bed so I went in there to see who it was, and I saw Spooky using the toilet. No one had taught her to do this. It was just something she did.

I think my all time favorite pet was a white dog called Rascal. Rascal was as smart as a whip. He knew how to open the door, and if it caught it just right with his paw, he could do it. He ran faster than any dog we’d ever had, and could jump almost as high as my head. He died eighteen months ago when he jumped out of the car and hit his head on the pavement. 

So have I ever had an exotic pet? No, I haven’t, and I don’t have much desire to do so. Dogs and cats offer such love and devotion that I’ve never even been tempted to look at other creatures. I saw a meme on Facebook the other day that said, ‘What did we do to deserve dogs?’ What indeed. As long as my dog and cat love me as they do, I won’t be looking at any other animal.

The picture is of me and Rascal.

Snippet Sunday and Weekend Writing Warriors: Never Trust a Pretty Wolf

Welcome to Snippet Sunday and Weekend Writing Warriors, your chance to sample the work of a talented group of authors. When you finish here you can find more snippets at:

http://www.wewriwa.com   

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SnippetSunday/

For the last few months I've been sharing excerpts from Turnaround Farm, but today I'm sharing from another book, Never Trust a Pretty Wolf. We'll begin with Chapter One.

Blurb:

Liesel Wolf has a secret, a dangerous secret she’ll go to any lengths to conceal. When she’s paired in a charity game with sexy marshal Andy Bryce, a man with secrets of his own, her carefully constructed world comes crashing down, and Liesel’s on a collision course with her past.

Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2KY04Rj

Last week:

Tony passed a steaming cup of coffee to Andy. “You know why, and it’s a perfectly normal reaction. You aren’t Superman even though you try to be.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Andy...”

Andy tried his best frown on Tony. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But...”

“If you won’t drop this topic of conversation I’m going home,” Andy warned.

Tony threw his hands up in surrender. 

Excerpt

Saturday Sample: Never Trust a Pretty Wolf

For the last few months I've been sharing excerpts from Turnaround Farm, but today I'm sharing from another book, Never Trust a Pretty Wolf. We'll begin with Chapter One.

Blurb:

Liesel Wolf has a secret, a dangerous secret she’ll go to any lengths to conceal. When she’s paired in a charity game with sexy marshal Andy Bryce, a man with secrets of his own, her carefully constructed world comes crashing down, and Liesel’s on a collision course with her past.

Buy link: https://amzn.to/2KY04Rj

Excerpt: 

Chapter One

Last week:

Andy Bryce kicked a pink stuffed rabbit out of his way and sat down on the sofa beside his brother, Tony, but he sat on a doll that immediately squawked, “Mama.”

Andy jumped as if the sound had come from a living child. “You hurt my baby,” his niece cried. She ran over to the fruit juice stained sofa and grabbed her toy. “You have to be careful, Uncle Andy.”

She stalked from the room carrying her baby doll cradled in her arms. 

“You’ve turned pale,” Tony observed.

“That’s silly.” Andy frowned at his brother. “Why would sitting on a doll bother me?”

This week:

Tony passed a steaming cup of coffee to Andy. “You know why, and it’s a perfectly normal reaction. You aren’t Superman even though you try to be.”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“Andy...”

Andy tried his best frown on Tony. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it.” 

“But...”

“If you won’t drop this topic of conversation I’m going home,” Andy warned.

Tony threw his hands up in surrender. “All right, you win. Here. Read the rules for Melton’s game. It’s for charity, you know.”

He thrust a glossy, colorful pamphlet at Andy, who scowled like a maniac. “I don’t want to participate in this thing, Tony, and you know it. If you think it’s so cool, do it  yourself.”

“Can’t.” He smirked at Andy. “Melinda’s folks are visiting us that week. If I don’t stay at home to help entertain them, Melinda will kill me.”

Braydon's Bride

Title: Braydon's Bride

Series: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #3

Author: Kathleen Lewis

Genre: Western Historical Romance

Release Date: August 22, 2019

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Braydon prides himself on his way with women. After all, he was raised in a house full of them. 

Then he meets Henrietta, an adventure-loving, globe-trotting, treasure-hunting enigma.

Henrietta makes her own way. She has no time for Braydon’s macho charisma. No interest in getting involved in the feud between Braydon’s brothers and their sworn enemy. 

Until she finds herself implicated in a murder. And Braydon is the one person she can count on.

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Henrietta heaved a sigh of relief as Braydon sauntered back to the bride and groom’s head table.  “Don’t encourage him,” she hissed under her breath to her friend, Percy.

Percy shook his elegant blond head.  “Darling, Henny. Men like Braydon Mason don’t need encouragement.  They thrive on any sort of challenge.”

Henrietta sniffed.  “As long as he doesn’t consider me one.  I was warned he fancies himself quite the ladies’ man.  He was raised in a brothel, of all places.”    

Percy laughed out loud, causing a few of the guests to look their way, wondering if they had missed a good joke.  “I don’t know if I ought to envy the bloke or pity him. Oops, don’t look now, but here he comes.”

Sure enough, Henrietta looked up to see Braydon making a bee-line for their table. She rose before he reached them, scanning the room for the nearest exit, but only made it two steps before he caught her arm.  She glanced back, horrified to see he held her shawl and her reticule in one large, sun-browned hand.  

“Forgetting something?”  

There was no mistaking the teasing glint in his dark eyes.  She tossed her head proudly. “Not at all. I was just …” She glanced around, seeking an excuse for her attempt to flee.  “I was just going for another glass of Champagne.”

“Great idea.  I could use a beer.”  Before she knew it, her hand was tucked in the crook of his elbow and secured there with his free hand.  The warmth of his clasp sent unwanted tingles of awareness up her arm and beyond.  

Henrietta felt the curious gaze from more than a few pairs of eyes following their progress, and much as she wanted to pull away and tell Braydon Mason to keep his filthy hands to himself, she reminded herself there was a time and a place for everything.  She was the newcomer here, and something of a curiosity to the locals.  

“’Nother beer, Bray?”  the bartender greeted him.  

“And Champagne for the lady, Mac.”

“Coming right up.”  

“Thank you,” she said, accepting the glass Braydon held her way, relieved when he released her to pick up their drinks from the bar.

“My pleasure.”  The way he watched her over the rim of his glass implied his pleasures were vast and varied.  And that he wasn’t above sharing.   

Two could play at that game!  

She leaned against the bar, not taking her eyes from him.  “I hear the women in town are all wondering who will be the next Mason brother down the aisle, and with which lucky lady.”  

“I’ve got four other brothers in the running.  I’ll sit that race out.”  

“Don’t be saying that too loudly,” Henrietta said.  “I can’t bear the sight of female tears.”      

“One more thing we have in common.”

“I wasn’t aware we had anything in common, Mr. Mason.”

“I told you.  Braydon.” He reached forward and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear with an easily familiarity that annoyed her.  She went to bat his hand away, but he caught her hand in his and raised it to his mouth. Before she could jerk free his tongue made the most delicious warm, hot swirls across her palm at the same time his thumb stroked the sensitive underside of her wrist.  

Pulling her hand away was the furthest thing from her mind.  

Instead, she dashed her glass of Champagne in his face.    

copyright 2019 Kathleen Lawless    

Kathleen Lawless blames a misspent youth watching Rawhide, Maverick and Bonanza for her fascination with cowboys. Historical or contemporary, cowboys continue to resonate with her today and inspired her new historical romance series, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. 

Steele, in A Hard Man to Love, is a modern-day cowboy, so when she was dating on-line and met a man called Steel— While he’s not a cowboy, he is an Alpha ale and her forever hero. Which is why all of her stories end Happily Ever After.

Not that she can ever stick to just one genre. So many stories to tell—never enough time.

With close to 30 published novels to her credit, she enjoys pushing the boundaries of traditional romance into historical romance, erotic romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction and stories for young adults. 

Sign up for Kathleen’s VIP Reader Group to receive a free, unpublished prequel of the Seven Brides series, updates, special giveaways and fan-priced offers. http://eepurl.com/bV0sb1

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