Book Blitz: Sugar Skulls

Sugar Skulls by Lisa Mantchev and Glenn Dallas
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Welcome to Cyrene, a city where energy is currency and music is the lifeblood of its young citizens. Everyone lives on the grid, and the residents of the world’s largest playground are encouraged to pursue every physical and emotional pleasure imaginable.

Vee is the lead singer of the Sugar Skulls, an all-girl band that is Corporate’s newest pet project. Micah haunts the city like a ghost after an overdose of a deadly illegal street drug knocks him off the grid. When Micah and Vee forge an immediate, undeniable connection, their troubled worlds collide.

Trading concert stages for Cyrene’s rooftops and back alleys, they have to evade vicious thugs and Vee’s possessive manager as they unravel the mysteries connected to their dark pasts. And before the curtain falls, Micah and Vee will bring the city to its knees in their desperate bid for love, home, and a future together.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:
The girl in the mirror is an undead supermodel in search of a catwalk. It’s the handiwork of the new styling team Corporate brought in to deal with my hair and paint my face and glue sequins to my eyelids and shove in the black-light contacts after the old team quit.

Not that I’m admitting I had anything to do with them unceremoniously packing their kits and leaving before the last show. Better to point the finger at Jax.

In the group, Jax is “the crazy one.” Damon recruited her a year ago, just before her eighteenth birthday, and she’s driven every styling team we’ve had batshit insane with her demands.

“Spiderwebs,” she decides for her face paint tonight, then points her index fingers at a case of skunk-striped bedhead so legendary, it looks like mice have nested in it. “Just don’t touch the ’do.”

There’s a continuous rumble coming from the front of the house: newbies, fresh off the nanotech install and frothing at the mouth to get a taste of everything Cyrene has to offer.

Book Blitz: Paper Dolls (Falling Paper #1)

Paper Dolls (Falling Paper #1) by Ketley Allison
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: November 12, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

It’s too bad for Scarlet that no matter how sweet a person is, fate can still screw you over.

Now she’s jaded, half of her torn away and the remainder flesh and bones. In her grief, all Scarlet wants to do is to rebel against the life that betrayed her and her roommate provides the perfect lure…

Scarlet awakens when she enters the New York City underground, where vice and fortunes thrive. Hustling, trickery and savagery allow her to discover her true self—-her forgotten soul reemerging. She just can’t promise it’ll come back pure.

It won’t matter that there is a shadow in her periphery. Theo Saxon thinks he can save Scarlet from a world she craves and protect her from the very elements he’s spawned from. But it’s through his unwitting instruction that Scarlet will become a part of his league and find the danger he wants so badly to keep to himself.

Scarlet thinks the stakes are within her control. But she won’t just be betting her heart on Theo and his seductive sins. She will wager her life.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Something was going to come out of the shadows and shank me.

I clung to the wrought iron fence, staying put despite Verily’s tugs on my arm. Our vulnerable bodies could be seen in every direction on the deserted street. Cars lined the road, but they stood silent, their windows shining onyx pits. Columns of brownstone buildings, bricked into two long, looming lines on either side, blocked the moon. Their rows of windows were as black as the cars below.

Blares of horns ricocheted through our residential street, but their echoes were faint. All signs of life were too far away to save me. But I agreed to this. I wanted this.

“Relax, Scarlet. I promise it’s safe,” Verily said to me.

Maybe no knife was needed. All the monsters in the dark had to do was bend me over this waist-high fence and spear my abdomen with one of the fleur-de-lis arrowheads, the skirt of my naughty maid's uniform flouncing in the wind and ruffling around my ass, drawing the eye of anyone who lingered.

Book Blitz: The Girl and the Gargoyle (The Girl and the Raven #2)

The Girl and the Gargoyle (The Girl and the Raven #2) by Pauline Gruber
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Release Date: June 23, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Being half-witch/half-demon and dating Marcus, a gargoyle and demon enemy, is complicated enough for Lucy. She can almost tolerate Jude, her demon father, forcing her to undergo combat training.

But when Marcus’s long-lost family returns to Chicago, her world begins to crumble. Marcus's mother wants him to leave to join the gargoyle clan; his father wants him to help kill Jude. There’s one major problem with this: if Jude dies, Lucy dies.

Marcus will do whatever it takes to save Lucy and her father. Meanwhile Lucy has her own plan and with the aid of a surprise newcomer, seeks help from the most unlikely—and dangerous—source.


♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“Why did I allow you to talk me into this?” Marcus rubs the back of his neck as he paces beside me. It’s impossible to read his expression in the near-darkness.

“Relax,” Selima says. “You’re going to love it. Tell him, Lucy.”

Marcus moves to the other side of the clearing. A chorus of sounds ring out through the woods, the skitter of nocturnal animals moving over a blanket of twigs, leaves and brush. Two owls hoot, hoot to one another.

“But I tried this before. Twice. It was a disaster.” He clears his throat. “Maybe I can’t fly. You know...like...some protectors can and some can’t.”

Book Blitz: Sweet Tea

Sweet Tea by Wendy Lynn Decker
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: March 12, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

The fourth anniversary of Olivia’s daddy and John Lennon’s death is approaching. Like the shot heard ’round the world, TV and radio stations keep the frenzy alive and recognize Lennon’s life, while Olivia’s mama remembers Daddy’s death. Instead of healing, Mama’s strange behavior keeps getting worse.

After viewing an afternoon talk show, Olivia discovers her mother might have more than a case of eccentricity – she may be mentally ill. When those fears are confirmed, Olivia is faced with more decisions than any sixteen-year-old should have to make. With no adult family members to turn to, she is forced to trust the only people who’ve offered help: one strange man and a friend her mother makes at the mental institution.

Facing the intricacies of her mother’s illness one minute and the decision to have sex with her new boyfriend the next, Olivia finds that through faith and determination, she can conquer it all in this poignant story of love, intuition, compassion, and hope.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“Well look at you, Miss Trailer Queen, all wrapped up in a fur coat. Did your little brother catch it live and skin it for you, too?” Luke had gone from a baseball-playing typical young boy to a backwoods hick since we’d moved to the trailer park, but insulting him like she did made my chest tight and my face burn.

At first, I felt a spike of anger, ready to thrust from my fist into Monica’s button nose. Instead, I fluttered my lashes and held my head high. “No, Monica. Only your daddy would accomplish such a task by hand. I got this as a gift.”

Monica’s face reddened. I could almost see smoke whistling from her ears as her mind spun fast, trying to outwit me. Regardless of her standing as Landon’s golden girl, my wit sparked of amber and sapphire. Monica’s smoldered like a windblown matchstick. I shared a subtle grin of satisfaction on my way out the door to the hallway.

Book Blitz: Zola Flash (Zola Flash, #1)

Zola Flash (Zola Flash, #1) by T. Marie Alexander
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: October 30, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Zola is a Victian. And for as long as she’s been alive, her planet has been at war with the ruthless, demeaning Payohlini.

After witnessing the gruesome murder of her family, Zola Flash decides it is time to escape with the one person she was taught to hate before she meets the same fate. Earth seems to be the perfect place to hide out – to pretend her whole life didn’t come crashing down.

While on Earth, fitting in and making new friends are Zola’s main goal. It’s what she wants. A family to call her owns. But then, Zola uncovers family lies and the true reason behind this never ending war.

Now it's up to Zola and the enemy, who is swiftly stealing her heart, to save her people and gain retribution for her family. But when revenge and protecting her people mean relinquishing her freedom, she's left with a difficult choice.

♥ ♥ ♥ Excerpt:

Pin searches my eyes as if the truth lies within them, before he pulls up a seat and sits in front of me. “Zola, how old are you?” he asks in a steady voice.

“Sixteen. Why?”

“Two years early,” Pin murmurs to himself.

He gets up and paces across the floor. He glares at me for a moment in a way that worries me. In a few strides, he marches back over to me, grabs me off the bed, and cradles me in his lap. He traces a finger across my healed wounds, as I daze into those immaculate eyes of his.

Halting in his ministrations, he frowns. “Would you like to hear a bedtime story before I leave?” he asks without meeting my gaze.

Book Blitz: Still a Bad Boy (Still a Bad Boy, #1)

Still a Bad Boy (Still a Bad Boy, #1) by Ada Scott
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: November 2, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

I can’t get him out of my mind, and I can’t keep myself out of his bed

Kendall

He wasn’t supposed to notice me. Jace Barlow: the most powerful man in the city. Mysterious, scarred, pure muscle and tattoos.

He was my first. That didn’t stop him from pinning me against a wall, using me for his own pleasure until I screamed his name.

Now my boss thinks I’m getting the scoop of the century, but all Jace is giving me is orgasm after leg-quivering orgasm. When he puts his hand on my throat and growls in my ear…

“You are mine.”

I know it’s true.

I’ve fallen hard and I’ve never felt safer…

Until I see him kill somebody.

Jace

I dedicated my life to taking down the Picolli Crime Family from the inside. I made a name for myself, the mafia’s most brutal enforcer. I worked my way up the chain, and my revenge came. A righteous bloodbath.

Then I took their place so they could never come back.

Nothing else has ever mattered. Until Kendall.

She was an innocent girl for me to defile, and then leave her ruined for other men like all the rest. But she makes me so hard I ache for release, and for the first time in my life, I want to have her again.

Kendall’s the chink in my armor my enemies have been looking for.

I don’t care.

She is mine and I’ll die before I give her up.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

After a brief hurricane of panic from everybody back in the office, I spent the entire afternoon on a computer researching Jace Barlow, determined to make part two of my interview infinitely less embarrassing than part one. I’d known he was secretive, but I didn’t realize just how little of his life had made it on to the internet.

Mr. Kinsley sent me some lines of questioning the brain-trust back in the office thought would be important to go through, but not until after trying to replace me at the dinner with a more experienced reporter. Barlow’s people shot that idea down.

This was my big chance, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to show them what I could do. Everybody at The Weekly Enquirer, my family, everybody back home who thought I would live and die in Woodville, I’d show them all.

Book Blitz: All the Way to Heaven

All the Way to Heaven by Becky Doughty
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Release Date: November 2, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Anica Tomlin, business major, has just learned that the man she’s been planning her future around, her Global Finance professor, already has a beautiful wife and family. Ani cashes in her graduation gift to herself a little early—a trip to Tuscany—but from the moment she boards the wrong train in Pisa, her plans for solitude and self-indulgence begin to unravel around her.

When a bicycle accident thrusts Ani into the skilled hands of the dashing Dr. Cosimo Lazzaro, she reluctantly accepts his invitation to recover in his family’s country villa, perched on a hilltop surrounded by the Lazzaro olive groves. But it’s been a black year for olive growers all over Italy, and generations of tradition are being put to the test like never before.

Ani is swept up in the drama of life in Tuscany, the convergence of old and new, and the passions that drive people to pursue the desires of their hearts. Just as Ani begins to get her feet under her again, an unexpected turn of events leaves her doubting the very existence of happily-ever-after, unless she can learn to trust the desires of her own heart.

Although All the Way to Heaven is a stand-alone novel, it is the first book in The Fallout Series, a collection of sweet contemporary romances that follow characters featured in the first book.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Seven AM in Lucca, and the quaint medieval town was teeming with life, fueled by a caffeine-and-Mediterranean-air-induced high. Bicycle bells jingle-jangled, and boisterous greetings volleyed from one side of the narrow streets to the other. School children laughed and called out to comrades as they scurried off to class.

“Why is everyone so happy?” I pulled a lumpy pillow over my head, but I could find no entry back into the anesthetizing arms of sleep. My first morning in this enchanted place, and I felt more like a forgotten princess in a tower than a girl on a much-anticipated trip to Italy.

I hadn’t expected to fall asleep right away, but after a hot shower and a bowl of the packaged soup my mom had slipped into my luggage before they drove me to the airport, fatigue settled its heavy cloak around my shoulders. Crawling between the crisp sheets that smelled of bleach and lavender, I was disquieted by the unfamiliar stillness of a town that collectively slept at night.