Title: Spindrifts Author: A-M Mawhiney Genre: Young Adult Dystopia
Racism, climate change, and violence are in the past. The new world values respect and collaboration with others. But are there secrets lurking in the shadows of the Land of Hope? What truth about the past is being covered up?
When fifteen-year-old Fania returns from Immersion, she is shattered to learn that the next phase of her education is at home with Alicia, her granny. She had hoped for something far grander that would prepare her for an important role with the Earth Project. Their two strong personalities clash as Fania begins to learn more about the past and her family’s role in it.
As Fania grows in confidence and power, she starts to wonder exactly what secrets Alicia is keeping in her underground lab. After Fania discovers the truth, she finds her calling: one that has the power to change everything.
I’m supposed to write in my journal every day. Sure. Like that’s the best use of my time. They said it’d be a private place to think, but I’ve wondered about that. I can think in my head without writing my thoughts. Just in case, I always use my disconnected tablet for the real journal, encrypted with three protective codes and in a language I developed myself. I know this might be over the top, but I’ve felt better knowing no one can read my actual journal. So, people can read how excited I am about my apprenticeship, but privately I’m totally dissed. I really want to learn about people From Away, and instead I’m apprenticing with Granny, my great-grandmother, who’s spent most of her life close to home in her research laboratory, two miles down an ancient mine shaft. It used to be where they studied mysteries of the universe! How the heck did that work?
I’ve always loved Granny. I’ve felt as though we’ve had a special relationship, and I’ve missed spending time with her. I just never thought they’d give me a responsibility so far removed from what I really want to be doing.
Ezma told me I’ve many skills and a strong aptitude for analytical thinking. I know what that means. It means sitting in an underground lab every day for the rest of my life. I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding my feelings because Ezma felt she had to remind me what Granny does is very important. Then she asked me a curious question.
“Do you know what she does?”
Well, of course I do! I explained, “Granny is the researcher who found the serum. She said it was a fluke.”
That comment made Ezma laugh, hysterically almost. “Well, Fania, you’ll find there’s a lot you can learn from Alicia. I hope you’ll keep an open mind.”
When I boarded the transport to head home after two years at Immersion, my patch reminded me to change my timer back to the village’s schedule. The health patch is a misnomer; it’s actually an up-to-date example of bio-merged nanotechnology. This latest gen’s so far advanced compared to the primitive models my grandparents used when they were young—those things they wore on their wrists. Now the healer implants the technology at birth where it merges with our brainwaves. It has reciprocal transformational capabilities, but I’ve been told there are limitations so it can’t change the basic personality or natural abilities of anyone. The patch transmits and receives communications, monitors personal health data, and provides all my reading materials. Everyone in our territory has them, so far as I know.
A-M Mawhiney was deeply moved by the events of 2020 and the cries from advocates fighting for equity and justice for people living precarious lives because of structural barriers and discrimination. As a former social worker and academic she has spent her career seeking ways to improve lives of marginalized learners through inclusive education for all students. Mawhiney has hope for a better future for us all. Her vision of what this might look like inspired her to write Spindrifts.
Anne-Marie lives in Sudbury, Ontario, in the territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek in the Robinson-Huron Treaty Area, with Dave McGill and their canine companion, Charlie.
Lady Ophelia is the last of her sisters to be unmarried! She knows she has to find a husband, but she’s been on the shelf for three seasons. When she finds a mysterious guide in Hatchards she forms a plan!
It just so happens that her brother’s best friend is happy to help her practice the instructions in the guide. Until they’re caught of course! Can the guide lead to happy ever after, or will scandal ruin Lady Ophelia’s chances?
A Brazen Agreement by Tamara Gill
Miss Sutton Howard needs to marry, and soon, there are only so many years a lady can endure the title of Wallflower. After a disappointing first season and the many that followed, her sixth will be her last and most successful. The Wallflowers Guide will ensure her season ends well. All she needs to do is find a gentleman suitable to be her husband.
Logan Carleton, Earl Jersey, knows it’s time to find a wife, if only the one woman he had lost through no fault of his own several years ago, wasn’t still on the market and complicating his life in London. Their bickering is no use, and before they cause another scandal, they must work together to gain what they both desire, spouses, just not with each other. But when two people are thrown together with an entwined history, complications arise, along with desires that may not be smothered a second time no matter how hard they try.
A Duke at Midnight by Stacy Reid
Miss Sarah Bellamy hopes to meet a gentleman at midnight, before she settles into the respectable and lonely life of a governess to two little girls. And her dreams come true. In the dark of the night, she is willingly seduced by a devastatingly handsome gentleman.
One night of bliss to discover he is not only a Duke but her future employer. A difficult adjustment to be so near and yet so far from the man of her dreams. She tries to suppress all hopes of more but finds herself inexorably drawn to the one man she knows she cannot have…
When decidedly on the shelf, a lady must sometimes take matters into her own hands and throw rules aside and do what one must to gain a husband.
Sutton raised her brows. Well, what did that mean? Was the guide giving her permission to misbehave? She pursed her lips in thought before the sound of another patron talking nearby caught her attention. Sutton slammed the book closed and quickly slid it back under the bookcase just as a couple passed her farther down the aisle. Sutton left the store, walking back to Hanover Square with determined strides, her maid hard on her heels. One must take one’s life into her own hands if one were to gain a husband.
Which would mean she had to be determined and go after what she wanted. She stopped on the footpath in thought. Did she like any gentleman enough for her to behave in such a way? To act instead of waiting for the gentleman to always come to her?
Sutton started off again, stepping around a large gentleman before slamming directly into a wall of muscle. She stumbled back, her footing beyond redemption before she landed with an oomph on the flagstone path. “Oww,” she complained, stopping herself from rolling a little and rubbing her behind in a most unladylike way. She glanced up, about to give a set down to the oaf who had run into her before the words dried up in her mouth. The horrified sight of Lord Jersey met her eyes. Logan Carleton. Of course, it was him she had slammed into. No one else would get in her way like that man did. Ass that he was.
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USATODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, Eva Devon, was raised on literary fiction, but quite accidentally and thankfully, she was introduced to romance one Christmas by Johanna Lindsey’s Mallory novella, The Present. A romance addict was born. She devoured every single Lindsey novel within a few months and moved on to contemporary and paranormal with gusto. Now, she loves to write her own roguish dukes, alpha males and the heroines who tame them. She loves to hear from her readers. So please pen her a note! evadevonauthor@gmail.com
Tamara is an Australian author who grew up in an old mining town in country South Australia, where her love of history was founded. So much so, she made her darling husband travel to the UK for their honeymoon, where she dragged him from one historical monument and castle to another.
A mother of three, her two little gentlemen, a future lady (she hopes) keep her busy in the real world, but whenever she gets a moment’s peace she loves to write romance novels in an array of genres, including regency, medieval, and time travel.
Tamara loves hearing from readers and writers alike. You can contact her through her website at www.tamaragill.com.
USA Today Bestselling author Stacy Reid writes sensual Historical and Paranormal Romances and is the published author of over twenty books. Her debut novella The Duke’s Shotgun Wedding was a 2015 HOLT Award of Merit recipient in the Romance Novella category, and her bestselling Wedded by Scandal series is recommended as Top picks at Night Owl Reviews, Fresh Fiction Reviews, and The Romance Reviews.
Stacy lives a lot in the worlds she creates and actively speaks to her characters (aloud). She has a warrior way “Never give up on dreams!” When she’s not writing, Stacy spends a copious amount of time binge-watching series like The Walking Dead, Altered Carbon, Rise of the Phoenixes, Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, and playing video games with her love. She also has a weakness for ice cream and will have it as her main course.
To be the first to hear about my new releases, get cover reveals and excerpts you won’t find anywhere else, sign up for my Newsletter @ https://www.stacyreid.com/#newsletter/
My new BFF is a witch and apparently, I’m a member of a witch’s coven. Only, I’m not a witch. Word is, I’m a wolf shifter. When I said I wanted to start over again, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
Being a shifter isn’t the worst thing I could imagine. It’s taken care of all the hot flashes. My body temperature now runs constantly high. I like it. Snow? Who cares? I don’t need no stinking coat anymore.
I can smell like ten times better than even when I was pregnant, and as for my vision? Glasses are SO last year. I won’t be needing those anytime soon.
But man, what about the actual shifting? That hurts like nobody’s business. They say I’ll get used to it, but they don’t know how much it hurts, because I’m the only shifter for miles around. “They” are the coven that has accepted me and given me a new family.
The threat from the cemetery is very real and the dead aren’t sleeping quietly. Our coven is the frontline on keeping the dead in their graves and for some reason, they think because I’m a wolf I should have some superpower against the dead. But I don’t.
What I have is an amazing BFF just as powerful and middle-aged as me and I know together we can face anything. At least I think we can. We survived the first half of our lives.
USA Today Bestselling Author. Farm Girl. Marketing Director.
Since I was eight, I have been writing stories that capture the adventures in my head and the characters strong enough and flawed enough to have them. When I look at an empty field, I see a formidable citadel. When I meet a vulnerable old man, I greet an emeritus warrior. When I walk through city streets, I feel dimensions hiding around every turn. It has been my lifelong passion to explore these worlds that reveal the pain of loneliness, the joy or self-actualization, and the hope of magic.
I grew up in a place called Potter Valley where the Milky Way is held aloft by a circle of mountains and the central business district consists of a bait store and a saloon. At 19 I moved alone to London and spent the next ten years exploring the world, even becoming an Australian citizen, before I returned to California and found a new home in Los Angeles. My world revolves around my two wee children, storytelling, and my love of travel.
Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.
Amelia is a USA Today best selling author from northern Michigan. Be her friend!
The Tower Card: Upheaval, Crumbling Foundations, Chaos, Awakening The Sun Card: Enlightenment, Joy, Success, Vitality
Rachel Ferrer fled the church when she was eighteen, burying her trauma to chase her dreams, only to have them thwarted when her husband died shortly after their son was born. Now she and her tarot-reading roommate do their best to get by.
Nicolas Rivera should be happy. He answered his call to the ministry and has held a position in the church he grew up in for more than a decade. He’s married and he loves his kids, but something in him has shifted and the life he thought he wanted doesn’t feel like it fits anymore. When his childhood best friend’s widow reappears in his life, Nicolas tells himself that his desire to be near Rachel is altruistic.
Until it isn’t.
Rachel and Nicolas have been on the periphery of each other’s lives for years, but when their worlds collide, attraction sparks, lightning crashes and the walls they have been hiding behind begin to crumble.
Lightning Crashes is an exvangelical romance that examines what happens when we build our lives on faulty foundations and what can happen when we leave that behind and step into the sun. Follow Rachel and Nicolas down the path of temptation, through their yearning slow-burn, and into their happily ever after.
Rachel had been chatting with Nicolas so long in the hotel’s lounge that when he stood to head back to his room after yawning for the fifteenth time, it only seemed natural to follow him. She’d meant to break off at the stairwell and head to her room, which was three floors up, but he was so busy telling her about how they’d had to move a felled tree to get a generator out to a clinic on the outskirts of town and how that was why he couldn’t wait for sleep, that when he opened his door, she just sort of followed him inside without thinking. He didn’t seem to have thought about it either until he shut the door behind her, and they were shrouded in darkness.
His voice trailed off and Rachel noticed how close he stood. She took a step away, but her back hit the door. Nicolas craned his neck and leaned backward; Rachel wondered if he could see anything in the dark room. She could only make out his outline from the faint glow of the emergency night light in the bathroom to her right.
“Roommate’s not back yet, no worries about waking him up.”
“Oh, that’s good,” she said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
Rachel meant to apologize for invading his space, but suddenly he was invading hers as his hands traveled up her arms to grip her shoulders.
Rachel felt tears ping at the corners of her eyes, even as heat and excitement sparked through her as Nicolas pressed into her space, trapping her against the door in a swirling vortex of potential. “Then why?”
She couldn’t even form the rest of the words in the sentence, but Nicolas didn’t need them. One finger traced a path of flame up her neck and tipped her chin up to where his eyes shone in the dim light. “I was afraid,” he said. “Hell, I’m still terrified, but when I saw you so happy, so free, that night, while I was still working through my anger and my pain . . .” He shook his head. “I still wanted you just as bad as I had before, I didn’t want to bring you down. So I ran, and I have regretted not kissing you and telling you how much I want you in my life every day since.”
“Oh” was all Rachel could say as tears did fall. She’d spent those first few days after the night at Paradox in a state of nervous anticipation. Should she text him again? Should she wait? Should she move on? What had she done to scare him off? Why didn’t he want her? Had Naomi missed a knot on her stupid string? Had she remembered to burn it on the full moon?
But here he was, pressing her against the door with his full body in a dark hotel room, kissing away her tears, and it hadn’t been anything to do with her or with Naomi’s spell after all. He’d been afraid he would bring her down. How did he not know that he was the only one she’d ever wanted?
“Rachel?” His voice was low, like a soft rumbling of thunder in the distance, even as she could feel his breath on her neck.
“Yeah?” She could barely choke out the word around her surprise. Her hope.
“Can I kiss you?” The rumble was closer this time. Deeper. Longer. More dangerous.
“You don’t have to ask,” she said, even though she knew she was playing with fire.
Sure enough, the second Nicolas’s lips met hers, her whole body ignited all at once as if she’d been struck by lightning. Rachel welcomed the burn as she surged up onto her toes to throw her arms around Nicolas’s shoulders so she could reach his lips more easily. They were plump and firm and sweet, and he still tasted so much like the cookies, Rachel thought she might be able to devour him whole.
Marla Holt believes in second chances, romance, and the radical notion that everyone deserves a happily every after. She’s living her own fairy tale, writing contemporary romance novels in her Kansas farmhouse with her husband, three boys, three cats, and flock of imaginary sheep. Follow her at marlaholt.com or on Instagram as @marlaholtauthor
Kelsey Clayton is a USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance novels. She lives in a small town in Delaware with her husband, two kids, and dog.
She is an avid reader of fall hard romance. She believes that books are the best escape you can find, and that if you feel a range of emotions while reading her stories – she succeeded. She loves writing and is only getting started on this life long journey.
Kelsey likes to keep things in her life simple. Her ideal night is one with sweatpants, a fluffy blanket, cheese fries, and wine. She holds her friends and family close to her heart and would do just about anything to make them happy.
Is there a moment from your past that you regret so deeply that it keeps you up at night?
I had one.
At the time, I thought I had done the right thing. I didn’t think I could offer Tucker what he needed, and when I broke his heart, all it served to do was break my own as well.
Almost two years had passed since my best friend was torn from my life, and I was finally starting to live again. When history almost repeated itself, it all came crashing down and I found myself in Tucker’s arms again.
The problem is, the only man I had ever loved hated me, but with each day that we fought our feelings, we were drawn back to one another.
After all I had done to hurt him in the past, would Tucker ever be able to forgive me and accept the love that had been dormant since the day I broke our hearts?
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Three Reasons You Should Read This Contemporary Romance:
How to Survive a Modern-Day Fairy Tale by Elle Cruz is a really fresh look at the billionaire romance trope that allowed me to actually like the billionaire.
Claire’s family is amazingly imperfect, and you can really feel the love and affection among them even when they disagree or argue.
The way Claire and Nate meet is great – it’s funny, cute, and adorable. and they just get better from there.
Claire Ventura is nothing like the poised and perfect heroines she reads about in her favorite romance novels. She’s a quirky, people-pleasing bookworm with a loving yet obliviously intrusive family and a passion for cookie decorating—all rolled into a five-foot-two Filipina American fueled by chamomile tea.
Then she meets Nate, billionaire CEO of a global tech company, the modern-day Prince Charming who sweeps her off her feet. Though he does his best to convince Claire that he’s genuinely head over heels for her, she knows he’ll soon realize she’s more underwhelming Plain Jane than jet-setting socialite. And once he meets her family, if their initial questioning doesn’t scare him off, then their tendency to decide “what’s best for her” certainly will.
Between her whirlwind romance with Nate and her meddlesome family, Claire wishes she had a fairy godmother to guide her. But this is the real world in the twenty-first century, and the only way to get her happily ever after is by grabbing firm hold of what she really wants—and letting her heart be her guide.
Claire is an amazing character, but she isn’t perfect. And the balance between the good and not-so-good side of people is really highlighted with her family. We learn a lot about Claire and her extended family – and how they influenced Claire’s personality – through their interactions. She is especially close to her grandmother, and this relationship plays a huge role in her story.
The meet-cute for Claire and Nate was so great! And her not having any idea of who he was. Nate was pretty low-key at first, but as people started to realize who was around them, things got a little crazy. As much as I like Nate as a character, I didn’t always like him as Claire’s boyfriend. He didn’t always seem to act on what he said. He said he wanted Claire to pursue her dreams, but then kept dragging her away from them. It set up a great conflict, but it also made me like him a little less.
Things come to a head when Claire feels like she has to make a really big choice, and they both kind of freak out and overreact to everything. And I loved how Claire’s sisters and her best friend rallied around her to support and try to help, even though some of them were going through some pretty big things themselves.
This was a truly feel-good type of romance (with plenty of heat still) that really focused on family and how relationships are built, and it was a wonderful thing.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
My first memory was in the cockpit of a plane. My second was of a uniform. All I’d ever wanted was to be a pilot. The Marines gave me wings and I gave them my all.
Half a dozen deployments, countless flight hours—I knew the controls in the cockpit better than I knew my own name. I never made mistakes. But war didn’t care how good you were. One surface-to-air missile and my career was over.
Thinking I’d left dangerous missions and adrenaline rushes in my rearview, I was piloting a seaplane in the Florida Keys when a beat to hell, dark-eyed blonde washed ashore. In nothing but a bikini, she asked me for help. Help I couldn’t give without an assist from Alpha Elite Security. Except AES wanted a favor in return… one that would put me right back in the line of fire.
Sybil Bartel is a USA Today Bestselling author of unapologetic alpha heroes. Whether you’re reading her deliciously dominant mercenaries, bodyguards or military heroes, all of her heart-stopping, page-turning romantic suspense novels have sexy-as-sin alpha heroes!
Sybil resides in South Florida and she is forever Oliver’s mom.
A year ago, I took the opportunity to spend one night with the mysteriously sexy man I had been dreaming about for two decades. When reality beckoned the next morning, I walked away from him and resumed my life, carrying my broken heart with me.
Now, the one thing I never expected to see has happened, and I am about to reenter the timeless world of Jack Perry. Where his fame impresses no one, least of all himself. Where days and nights become blurry, and clocks cease to exist. A place where passion and lust will land me on the doorstep of an explosive confession. Above all else, this is the moment when the door to my closure will be kicked wide open. This time, will I stay?
NT Anderson has lived in multiple countries and states and is currently hunkered down in the Endless Mountain Region of the Northeast US. Her chosen professional path was restaurant management and hospitality services until 2009 when she turned her passion for writing into a career as a content creator. In 2019, she took it several steps farther by diving into the world of fiction.
Nikki can usually be found keeping odd hours, spending time with family and friends, talking to the characters in her head via candlelight, and plotting her next adventure. Several furbabies keep her on her toes, including two spoiled dogs, a pudgy cat, and a feisty horse.
She fancies herself to be a pirate, especially on Saturday nights when she breaks out the rum.
