Book Review - Midnight Blue by L.J. Shen
Synopsis:
From bestselling author L.J. Shen, comes a new, standalone, contemporary romance.
It should have been easy.
I needed the money. He needed a babysitter to keep him from snorting himself to death.
I was cherry-picked especially for him. Responsible. Optimistic. Warm. Innocent.
The worst part is that I should have known better.
Alex Winslow. British rock star. Serial heartbreaker. Casanova with whiskey eyes.
“Don’t get near the devil in a leather jacket. He’ll chew you up and spit you out.”
Guess what? I didn’t listen.
I signed the contract.
World tour. Three months. Four Continents. One hundred shows.
My name is Indigo Bellamy, and I sold my soul to a tattooed god.
Problem was, my soul wasn’t enough for Alex Winslow. He ended up taking my body, too.
Then he took my heart.
Then he took my all.
Cover Reveal - Bad Intentions by Charleigh Rose
Title: Bad Intentions
Series: Bad Love #2
Author: Charleigh Rose
Genre: NA/Contemorary Romance
Release Date: April 30, 2018
Cover Designer: Leticia at RBA Designs
Lo
Moving to River’s Edge was supposed to be a fresh start.
Away from chaos.
Away from bad influences and worse relationships.
All I wanted was to give my little brother more of a chance than I ever had.
It should’ve been simple.
I didn’t count on my transgressions following me.
And I definitely didn’t count on meeting Dare.
Tall, tortured, and tattooed.
A Lost Boy through and through.
Falling for someone like him was asking for heartache.
But I was a sucker for punishment.
Dare
I had a routine.
Eat, work, sleep, repeat, only ever doing the bare minimum to keep up appearances.
I kept my circle small and my guard high.
I spent years making sure I didn’t repeat the mistakes of my past, forming an impenetrable layer of ice around my heart.
Then Logan showed up in my town, in my tattoo shop, testing my patience along with my self-control.
She was fire and I was ice.
I should’ve stayed away.
But I had been cold for far too long.
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Cover Reveal & Excerpt - Voyeur by Fiona Cole
Release Date: April 26, 2018
Cover Design: Najla Qamber Designs
Photography: Alex Sens
Synopsis
I didn’t know she was my student the first time I paid to watch her at Voyeur.
Once she walked into my classroom, another smiling college freshman, I knew I should stop going. Stop watching.
But I couldn’t do it. Everything about her makes me want more, and once I realize she wants me too, the temptation becomes irresistible.
The worst part is that she has no idea her professor is the one watching behind the glass.
I just have to hope that once she finds out the truth, she wants the same thing I do. Because now that I've seen all of her, I can't look away.
Goodreads
Excerpt
Slamming another drawer closed, I looked toward Dr. Pierce’s office, hoping he had heard, and it annoyed him. I refused to think of him as Callum. He’d made it clear this week that he was officially Dr. Pierce.
Abusing his power as my superior, if you asked me. It was the second night he’d kept me later than necessary. The whole office was deserted except for me and him. Every time we spoke, it was Miss Derringer with a distant voice. Lacking all emotion. What the hell had changed from the heated looks in class last week? Was he pissed that I’d refused to stay to talk to him? That I’d called out on Friday?
I’d just needed time to process, the whole situation clouding my mind. Then the entire time I’d worked at Voyeur over the weekend, I’d been looking for him. Constantly waiting for him to walk through the door, come to me and demand I take his request for another repeat. My heart had been erratic every minute I was there, worried that he’d come, more worried that he wouldn’t.
And he hadn’t.
Feeling that desire for him to come to me had cracked open a door to clarity. I wanted him to. For the first time I had a solid feeling of want. Not fear or indecisiveness but want. Want for him to walk through the door and stare at me the same way he had in class.
But he never came and clocking out on Sunday night had been depressing.
I hoped I’d have time to talk to him on Monday, that we would sit and have our lunch and figure it out. But he’d shut his door and told me I should go grab some lunch and be back in an hour. I’d stared at the wood between us with my jaw hanging open. When he finally opened the door again, it was to request I type up meeting notes.
“If you would, Miss. Derringer,” he’d said, gesturing to the papers on the corner of the desk without even bothering to look up from his work. As though those same fingers hadn’t been buried inside me, hadn’t made me come.
That had been the beginning of the benign requests and menial tasks.
Reorganize the beakers.
Rewash the beakers.
File these papers alphabetically. File these numerically.
Make these copies and organize the packets.
Go to the chemistry department and help them move the centrifuge up to our floor.
I was waiting for him to ask me to get on the floor and spit-shine his shoes. I ground my jaw at each request. I hadn’t hoped today would’ve been any better after his completely ignoring my existence in class, but I hadn’t expected him to keep me late. Again.
It made me want to regret having let anything happen between us, but I didn’t. Not really. I missed the friendship we’d formed. I missed sharing lunches with him and laughing over our easy banter. That was the most painful part of all of this.
Even though staying late on a night I had off from Voyeur and could catch up on homework was a close second.
I walked to his office and stared at his head bent over some papers. I knew he knew I was there, but he refused to look up and acknowledge me. Why bother?
“I’m done with everything, Dr. Pierce.” I made sure to stress his name, so he had no doubt I felt his cold shoulder.
“Another thirty minutes and I’ll be ready to lock up. You can help me,” he said, not even bothering to look up.
That was enough. It was after seven and even if we hadn’t shared our experience, I wouldn’t stand for this disrespect. I was sick and tired of him acting like an asshole. I had more than two months left with him, and I wasn’t going to let him think he could walk all over me.
“You can’t keep me here.”
That got his attention. Finally, his head lifted, and he stared at me with blank eyes.
“Excuse me, Miss Derringer?”
I scowled at the Miss Derringer. He saw and a small flicker of something crossed his eyes. Too fast for me to see. I stomped, like a child throwing a temper tantrum, further into the room and slammed the door. No one was around, and the heavy wood banging shut made me feel better.
“I may only be a teenager and you’re my professor, but you can’t take advantage of me like this.”
He laughed. Actually laughed. My eyebrows rose high on my forehead. His head fell back, and mouth opened around the deep rumble escaping into the room to taunt me. I took a deep breath and furrowed my brows. His chest shook with the humor he couldn’t seem to contain.
“This is not fucking funny,” I growled.
Getting himself under control, his eyes were no longer blank when he looked at me. The blue almost glowed in the dimly lit room. I took an involuntary step back as his gaze raked over me, each inch of my body igniting with his stare.
“Oaklyn, trust me when I tell you I see you as anything but a teenager. Anything but than my student.”
Giveaway
One of Five ARC's for Voyeur
About the Author
Fiona Cole is a military wife and a stay at home mom with a degree in Biology and Chemistry. As much as she loved science she decided to postpone her career to stay at home with her two little girls and immersed herself in the world of books until finally deciding to write her own. Where You Can Find Me is Fiona's debut novel and will hopefully be the first of many.
Connect with Fiona
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Excerpt Reveal - Needing Him by Kennedy Fox
Evan Bishop is your typical hotshot doctor. Hardass, brooding, and all business. Instead of working on the family ranch, Evan broke the mold and became an ER doctor. He’s good with his hands—in more ways than one—smart as a whip and is the definition of God’s gift to women. Being a gentleman is in his Southern roots, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t flawed. Exclusive dating has never been a top priority and his tragic past makes him stay at arm’s length. Deciding to let loose for a wild night, he takes a page from the Bishop brother’s relationship book and hooks up with a mysterious girl he’ll never have to see again, which is perfect for this self-proclaimed bachelor. Emily Bell is a city girl through and through but is determined to get away from her family and past. All she wants is a fresh start and to make a name for herself in the medical field. No random hookups and no dating coworkers—that’s her new motto after being burned time and again. When she agrees to attend a wedding as a plus-one, she’s soon ditched and left to drink solo—but not for long. Mr. Suit is the ultimate temptation with his Southern charm, messy blond hair, and irresistible sex appeal. Everything about him screams bad news, but he makes her reconsider her rules just for one night. After all, some rules are made to be broken. They want the same thing—one night of passion then they’ll go their separate ways. No cuddling afterward. No next day phone calls. No awkward goodbyes. Too bad the universe has other plans—one that’ll be obvious when they report to work on Monday morning. *A contemporary romance with a little Southern drama. This is book 2 in the Bishop Brothers series. Each book features a different brother and can be read as a complete standalone. HEA guaranteed!* Not suitable for readers under 18 due to adult language and sexual content.
Evan
and I suit up in our surgical gowns, gloves and masks but before I can
ask for help to tie me up, he’s behind me knotting the ties around my
neck and waist.
“Thanks.”
He only nods in response without making eye contact. I see Veronica is
already tying him up and that’s when I get the impression she’s his
right-hand man. She always has his files ready for him, relays his
messages, and I’m pretty sure she handed him a coffee yesterday
afternoon.
She’s his work wife.
I giggle a little to myself at the term I’ve heard my dad use about one
of his assistants. When you work in the hospital as much as we do,
you’re more married to the people you work with than the actual people
you’re married to.
“Something funny?” He shoots daggers at me.
“Are you seriously going to scold me for laughing to myself?”
“This isn’t a laughing matter. We have a job to do.”
I roll my eyes, but he walks off before he can see me. You’d think the
guy didn’t just get laid last weekend or something by his bad attitude.
The paramedics rush in just moments later and the whole scene unfolds.
Three stretchers are brought in with patients with minor injuries and
Evan directs them to the three nurses to assess them. An unconscious
patient is brought into trauma room one and when the last patient is
rolled in, I follow Evan into trauma room two.
“Transfer on three,” Evan orders before counting and the nurses and I
help him move the patient off the stretcher and onto the hospital bed.
“Patient is a twenty-nine year old female and was the passenger when she
got T-boned on her side. Driver said she smacked her head and couldn’t
get her to wake up. BP was at ninety over eighty,” one of the paramedics
tells us. Veronica is already hooking her up to the blood pressure cuff
and heart rate tracker.
“That blood pressure is too low,” Evan mutters, unwrapping his
stethoscope from his neck and listening to her heart. “Her heartbeat is
slow and her breathing is unsteady. Bag her.”
Moments later, Veronica hands me the equipment to manually ventilate her
and Evan watches as I push the tube down her throat and into her lungs.
I’ve done this hundreds of times but with his piercing eyes on me, I
get nervous.
“Dr. Bell…” His warning tone has my nerves on fire.
“I’ve got it,” I say, attaching the bag to the mask and pumping.
Once he checks for himself, I roll my eyes when his expression doesn’t
change. He orders Veronica to check the head wound where blood is
pooling and Heather places an IV in the woman’s arm so she can
administer medication.
“She has a pretty deep cut near her right temple. Going to clean it up
and probably need some stitches,” she tells Evan.
“She might have some internal bleeding, so let’s get radiology in here
to do some scans while her breathing is stable for now.”
Evan gets radiology within minutes since they’re in the next room. Once
the x-rays are done and processed, we see she has a bleed in her spleen.
“Ruptured spleen,” Evan confirms what I already knew.
“Her abdomen must’ve been hit pretty hard,” I say, handing off the
ventilator bag to Heather so I can look at the x-rays more closely.
“Or she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.” Evan’s body tenses and his eyes go
dark. His mood shifts, and I wonder what the hell just happened.
“Veronica, she needs to be prepped for surgery. Page me when she’s in
recovery,” he orders before facing me. “Stay with Veronica and help her
prep the patient then find me.”
He walks off before I can respond.
I do as he says and help Veronica while the trauma surgeon comes in all
ready to go. We roll her down to the OR and once she’s securely inside,
Veronica and I walk out.
“Good job, Dr. Bell,” she praises me, which takes me off guard a bit. I
don’t even feel like I did that much, but I smile at her compliment.
“Thanks. You too. You’re the superhero of nurses.” I smile.
She blushes, a small smile gracing her lips. “Thanks, I love my job. Dr.
Bishop makes it easy to do my job well.”
My stomach twists at her words, wondering if that means what I’m
thinking. Does Veronica have a thing for Evan? I mean, I wouldn’t blame
her in the least, but this is only my second shift so who the hell
knows.
“It’s obvious you two make a great team. I envy that.”
“We do. It’s nice.” She smiles wide, and that’s all the confirmation I
need that she definitely has feelings toward him.
Once we’re back to the ER, I find Evan and wait for his next order. The
other three patients are in beds and all stabilized with minor injuries.
The other unconscious patient is a child and I rush in to help once
Evan calls for my assistance.
“She’s crashing,” one of the nurses shouts, announcing the code.
Evan grabs the crash cart and I add the gel to the paddles before I
charge it to three hundred and he shouts, “Clear!”
He shocks her chest and her heart begins beating again. She’s so little,
I’m relieved that we don’t have to do it again.
“Bag her,” Dr. Moody orders.
Veronica hands me the tube and supplies, but the tube is too big. “Her
throat is too swollen.”
“Here,” she says, handing me a smaller sized one.
I’m quick to grab it and attempt it once again with no luck.
“Veronica, take over for Dr. Bell.” Evan’s tone is cold and harsh.
“I can do it,” I bite out, trying again but the way he’s scolding me
with his eyes has my nerves all over the place. I can do this in my
sleep, so my frustration grows the longer it takes.
“Veronica, now.”
“I said I got it!” I shout, but it doesn’t matter because Veronica grabs
the tube from me and pushes me out of her way. She manages to ease the
tube down her throat and quickly attaches everything together.
“Compress the bag,” Evan directs his order at me, keeping his eyes down
as he assesses her other injuries that have already been checked.
Veronica steps aside so I can take over ventilating. My blood is
boiling, but I know I need to remain calm and indifferent right now.
Two hours later, the ER is calm again but that doesn’t mean my annoyance
has died down. Evan continues his bossy demeanor, and I’m so irritated
with myself that I let him get to me. I’ve done that procedure so many
times in my career and have never had issues, but him watching me and
shouting made my nerves get the best of me.
I’m sitting in front of my locker, taking angry bites of my licorice
when I hear the door behind me open. I immediately know it’s him when
the hair on the back of my neck stands up, and I prepare myself for an
ass chewing.
“That’s a gross habit,” he starts, walking to his locker that I realize
is next to mine.
I snort at his first choice of words. “Eating?”
He scoffs, digging around his bag. “That isn’t eating. It’s high in
sodium and carbs and filled with corn syrup.”
“Well I could be a smoker. Or drinker.” I smirk. “Or I could—”
“Or you could eat food that’ll help sustain your energy levels instead
of falling asleep on the job.”
“I did not fall asleep on the job!” I stand up, appalled at his
accusations.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“You screaming and shouting at me while I’m trying to do something isn’t
how I work!”
“You want to be an ER doctor at a trauma hospital?” he taunts, stepping
right into my space. “Then act like it. There’s no time for emotions or
your feelings to get hurt. You focus on the patient and you get your
shit done. Bagging is med school 101 so forgive me if I have my doubts
about you, Dr. Bell.”
We’re both breathing hard and my heart races at an intense speed.
Knowing what he looks like under those scrubs has my brain
malfunctioning on a witty response. I want to grab his face and kiss the
attitude right out of him, but I won’t let him win.
“Though considering your last name, I expected more from you.”
His words sting and I know he said them to get under my skin, but I
won’t give him the satisfaction that it hurt. I ignore him and pretend
it doesn’t phase me at all.
“Goodnight, Dr. Bishop. Hope you sleep well,” I say smugly, widening my
smile before taking another bite of my licorice.
I see the corner of his lips twitch and the thought of driving him crazy
the same way he does to me makes me do a little victory dance in my
head.
“Sweet dreams, Dr. Bell.” He reaches for his bag and before he turns,
grabs the half-eaten piece of licorice out of my hand and walks out.
Bastard.
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Brooke Cumberland & Lyra Parish are a duo of romance authors who teamed up to write under the USA Today Bestselling pseudonym, Kennedy Fox. They share a love of You’ve Got Mail and The Holiday. When they aren’t bonding over romantic comedies, they like to brainstorm new book ideas. One day, they decided to collaborate and have some fun creating new characters that’ll make your lady bits tingle and your heart melt. If you enjoy romance stories with sexy, tattooed alpha males and smart, independent women, then a Kennedy Fox book is for you! Keep up with all their social media platforms for updates & info!
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