Title: The Between Author: Ryan Leslie Genre: Horror
While landscaping his backyard, ever-conscientious Paul Prentice discovers an iron door buried in the soil. His childhood friend and perpetual source of mischief, Jay Lightsey, pushes them to explore what’s beneath.
When the door slams shut above them, Paul and Jay are trapped in a between-worlds place of Escher-like rooms and horror story monsters, all with a mysterious connection to a command-line, dungeon explorer computer game from the early ’80s called The Between.
Paul and Jay find themselves filling roles in a story that seems to play out over and over again. But in this world, where their roles warp their minds, the biggest threat to survival may not be the Koŝmaro, risen from the Between’s depths to hunt them; the biggest danger may be each other.
Ryan Leslie oversees research for a large health system, where making stuff up is generally frowned upon. His creative outlet has always been writing fiction. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, children’s author Lindsay Leslie, and their two sons.
Jack Massey broke my heart. He was jealous and possessive. We were all wrong together—too engrossed, too greedy for one another…like we were each other’s fix.
We made no sense. He’s a stuffy, number-cruncher from a wealthy family, and I’m a hot mess from a trailer park. We’d never work long-term.
He says he wants me back. He needs to let the past stay behind us. I’ve worked too hard this year to get over him. I’ve thrown myself into my work with the kids at the resort. I’ve nurtured friendships with my amazing co-workers. I even tried another relationship. Though Jack’s never left my head or my heart.
Jack:
I screwed up. I’ve paid the price this past year. I quit drinking and became obsessed with my job and working out. I’ve not so much as looked at another woman. Tori’s all I’ve been able to focus on, even after a year
I want her back. It’s not going to be easy. We come from different worlds, and she makes sure I know it at every turn.
I’ve never failed at anything in my life except for my relationship with her, and I don’t intend to lose at that again.
Welcome to Destiny Dunes, where the only thing hotter than the Florida sun is the romance between this resort’s employees. Each book in this steamy series focuses on your favorite romance tropes. Once you enter the gates of Destiny Dunes, you’ll never want to leave!
Our conversation takes us all the way to Jack’s luxury SUV. He opens the door for me, and I get in, knowing I’ll probably never feel like I belong in a car like this. But I start to get a little more comfortable in it this second time around. When he slides into the driver’s seat, I ask, “Where are we going?”
“I want to take you home to my place, but I know better.”
I desperately want him to take me there and directly to his bed. But I want to make him take me out on at least one date before we jump into sleeping together.
“What about a movie?” I say.
“That’s cool. Which one do you want to see?”
I rub my forehead, trying not to say the next words I know I’m going to say. “We can just watch one on your couch.”
“Okay,” he says, a smile trying to get through as he chews on his lip.
“I mean watch a movie,” I say.
“I mean it, too.”
He pulls into the parking lot of his building, and when we both get out of the car, he takes my hand as we walk toward the door. There’s something so possessive about the way he holds my hand, like he’s showing the world that I’m his.
He lets us inside the secure building, and we head to the elevator. We wait for it in silence, still holding hands, and I feel the tension building between us like a pot of water on the verge of boiling.
We get on the elevator, and he hits the button for his floor and then turns to me.
I look away with a giggle. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he says, looking ridiculously innocent with his dark eyes and his five-o’clock shadow.
We exit the elevator and he lets us in his apartment. “This is a blast from the past,” I say. His place always makes me feel so adult. He had it professionally decorated in sleek lines and gray tones, which is a stark contrast to the resort-issued décor of my own place.
“Do you want water to drink, or do you want something else?” he asks. “I have beer and wine.”
“I’ll just take water, please.”
He settles in next to me, handing me the water. “Do you know what you want to watch yet?”
Being here in this apartment with him sitting right next to me on his couch is almost more than my nervous stomach can handle. “It doesn’t matter,” I say, unable to pull my gaze away from his.
He takes my bottle of water from me and sets it on the coffee table in front of us. He slides his hand underneath mine. “Thanks for trusting me enough to let me bring you back here.”
My heel taps on the floor without my permission. He puts his hand on my knee, stopping the rapid movement. “You don’t have to be nervous around me, Tori. You are totally running the show here and you know it.”
I point to his chest. “You say that, but it doesn’t always feel that way.”
He clasps his hand around my finger and kisses the tip of it. “Whatever you decide you want to happen between us, I’m all for it.”
I close my eyes. “Why have you made me stop hating you? It was so much easier that way.”
He runs his fingertips across my cheek and then around to the back of my neck. Every time he puts his hand back there, my body melts like a block of ice in a sauna.
Melissa Chambers writes contemporary novels for young, new, and actual adults. A Nashville native, she spends her days working in the music industry and her nights tapping away at her keyboard. While she’s slightly obsessed with alt rock, she leaves the guitar playing to her husband and kid. She never misses a chance to play a tennis match, listen to an audiobook, or eat a bowl of ice cream. (Rocky road, please!) She has served as president for the Music City Romance Writers and is the author of the Love Along Hwy 30A series, the Destiny Dunes series, the Before Forever series (YA), and Courting Carlyn (YA).
A prison break, a secret admirer, and a boatload of lies. Just about everything Sloane Cabot knows about her past is a big old pile of malarkey. Couple that with the blank spot of how her family died, and she needs answers, like, yesterday.
But when a man shows up dead on her family’s grave, she knows it somehow has to be tied to that fateful night a year ago.
A pair of guards opened the giant doors, bowing at Thomas as he guided me through. It was an actual struggle not to freeze at the entrance and stare. But man, did I want to. This place—while definitely what I would consider on-brand for a vamp nest—was one of the most magnificent buildings I’d ever been in. I wasn’t particularly interested in other churches, but this cathedral was just a beauty. A gallery of pews sat to the left and right of a wide aisle that led to a raised dais. Vampires filled the seats, dressed similarly to Thomas and me, their voices a low buzz of conversation. More people were sitting in the upper gallery, their opulent gowns and sharp tuxedos a happy reminder that Thomas had my back. Had I walked in here with leather pants and a whip on my hip, I had a feeling I would have been just a touch out of place.
Thomas continued his leading, guiding me down the aisle toward a stunningly severe woman sitting on what appeared to be a throne. Skin paler than death, eyes vamped out in a way that seemed permanent, and painted lips the color of blood, she was the most beautiful and yet most frightening woman I’d ever seen. Dark hair was piled on her head in purposefully haphazard curls, a few tendrils snaking out of the complicated up-do to artfully caress her neck. She wore a brilliant green gown that was so simple, and yet so achingly complex, it had to have cost a fortune.
We reached the end of the aisle, and Thomas bowed his head slightly. I copied him, wishing I would have received an etiquette lesson on the hour-long drive here. All I’d gotten was Thomas’ clenched jaw and silence.
“You have some nerve,” a woman growled, drawing my gaze from what had to be the queen of this nest to her right.
I quickly realized that the voice did not belong to a woman at all but a child. Pale-blonde hair and blue eyes were set in an elfin face of a vampire who had likely been no more than ten when she was turned. And that had to have been centuries ago. This little whisp of a “girl”—and I use that word lightly—had the look of a being older than dirt. Dressed in a black lace confection appropriate for a child beauty queen, she stood from her chair.
She then launched herself at Thomas.
I couldn’t exactly say why I did it. I mean, she had me by centuries, and Thomas could take care of himself. But as soon as her feet left the dais, I had the knife Clem had given me yanked from its sheath and was in front of the man in an instant.
Thomas owed me, not the other way around, but he’d been kind to me when I’d needed it, and I wouldn’t let him get attacked. No way, no how.
It was as if everyone froze. Conversations halted, guards stood stock-still, and even this slip of a thing stood arrested at the end of my blade, which was poised at her throat.
To this tiny—but by no means less deadly—vampire at the point of my knife, I said, “Settle down there, Blondie, or we’re going to have a problem.”
Annie Anderson is a military wife and United States Air Force veteran. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a southern girl at heart, but has lived all over the US and abroad. As soon as the military stops moving her family around, she’ll settle on a state, but for now she enjoys being a nomad with her husband, two daughters, an old man of a dog, and a young pup that makes life… interesting.
I am a New Zealand author writing in m/m romance, and romantic suspense. I have traveled extensively and lived in the US, Canada, France, Australia and South Korea. In a past life I have been an Intensive Care Nurse, Counselor, and a Nursing Lecturer.
I’m a cat aficionado especially of Maine Coons, and an avid dog lover (but don’t tell the cat). I love to cook, pretty damn good, love to sing, pretty damn average, and as for loving full-time writing, absolutely… depending of course on the day, the word count, the deadline, how obliging my characters are, the ambient temperature in the Western Sahara, whether Jupiter is rising, the size of the ozone hole over New Zealand and how much coffee I’ve had.
He needs to fire her or claim her before it’s too late.
Avery gets caught in a web of deceit when she agrees to help save her family farm. As her life begins to tangle chaotically, her attraction grows for her new boss, Stryker Red Eagle, but he is the enemy… or is he?
Stryker’s ordered life is turned upside down when Avery arrives as a woman, not the male assistant he thought he was getting. She is stealing his concentration, and something is going on with her that he can’t figure out.
To save his sanity, Stryker needs to either fire Avery or claim her as his own. But then the real trouble begins.
He was a moody man, and she didn’t have time for that even if he sent her libido into orbit. It had only started as an offer for a temp job, but once Ben discovered where she was going to work, he had demanded she add the family agenda. She was only out for a connection between him and the farm and then something that would break that link. Once that was found, she would likely need to slip away quickly and quietly. And that just sucked.
She waited to see if there would be any movement from Renee’s office, but when all was quiet for a few moments, she walked closer. Good, maybe she could sneak into Stryker’s office and look through some of his papers while they were otherwise occupied.
Avery locked the front door. Her heart pounded, and her blood rushed as she worked on scanning through all the paperwork in the inbox and then in the outbox on Stryker’s desk. Automatically picking up a dirty coffee cup from Stryker’s desk, she tried to open a file cabinet but found it was locked. There was a noise in the office next door, and then the front door opened. Caught with nowhere to go, she carried his cup out of the office.
Declan walked in the door and pocketed his keys. “Who locked the door?”
“The last one to go in or out of that door was Stryker.” Not a lie but not an answer to the question asked.
Declan paused. “Is Stryker in there?” He nodded in the direction of the room she was exiting.
“No, I was dropping off something and grabbing his coffee cup to clean.”
“He’s washing his cup now?”
Avery frowned and looked inside the cup. “Well, I am. This is disgusting.”
Declan laughed. “I could get used to you. But a word to the wise. I’d have it washed and then refilled with coffee as soon as he walks in the door, so he doesn’t notice right away that you’ve washed it.”
“Why? Doesn’t he like it cleaned?”
“Nope. Says it adds character and flavor to his next cup.”
Avery rolled her eyes. “Right.”
“Hey, I’m Declan, but I don’t have time to chat. I’ll see you at dinner or lunch soon. Yeah?”
“Oh, um, yes.”
“Good.” That was too close for comfort. Avery wasn’t up to this spy business. Going behind people’s back kept her stomach in an uproar. The honesty in her bones was rioting, and it was more than a little uncomfortable. Something told her if Stryker ever found out, she would be one sorry
Alyssa Bailey is a USA Today and Amazon No. 1 bestselling author of Historical and Contemporary Suspense romances, Alyssa writes light, realistic romance novels full of sizzling alpha males and the spicy adventuresome women they love. My characters live in Cowboy Country, Regency/Victorian England, and the Contemporary realm all with a touch of suspense and a Happily Ever After.
A proud Texan living among the wealth of Alaska’s beauty, I watch eagles fly overhead, whales and salmon frolicking in the sea, seals clapping for attention, and bears in the neighbor’s garbage. I vacation where rattlesnakes and scorpions roam beside black widow spiders, cattle country, rodeos, and horses that are eager to take you on your own happy trails.
Thank you for reading my adventures of love with a touch of something special.
Death didn’t scare Lilith Whitlock. At the ripe age of twenty, she preferred to take whatever life threw at her, and if death was a curveball, she’d catch it.
What she didn’t expect was for impending death to be stalled by being transformed into a vampire.
With sharp, pointy teeth and a hunger for blood, Lilith adapted to her new life. Befriending three hot vampires with a mission to maintain balance had something to do with that, but the paranormal world wasn’t perfect.
Especially when she learned creating new vampires was illegal. Now, she had to prove herself as indispensable to the Order of the Void, or she’d be obliterated from existence.
No one mentioned that being a new-blood came with a looming threat and imminent danger.
Crimson Tears is book one of three in the Crimson Demon Trilogy. It is a paranormal why-choose romance centered around three vampires and one demon. It contains mature subject matter that might not be suitable for all readers.
My eyes shot open, and I lunged at Kai, catching him off guard. I smacked into him, toppling us over his chair and crashing into the floor. The hardness of his body beneath mine sent my sense of touch into overdrive. The devouring thoughts of blood were replaced by thoughts of Kai underneath me.
I stared down at him, tilting my head to the side. Our gazes were locked in a heated battle. I couldn’t tell if he was testing me about the blood in his hand or if he wanted me as much as I wanted him.
“Blimey.” He reached his other hand up, grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling me toward him until our breaths mingled. “I’m impressed you were able to stop yourself from taking the blood out of my hand.”
Lyra Winters is a twenty-something Kentucky woman who adores the book world. When she’s not typing away on her laptop or daydreaming book ideas, Lyra is occupying her time taking care of her two spunky daughters and dreamy husband. She’s addicted to Coca-Cola, 2000s rap music, and bubble baths. Her dream is to write love stories that touch the reader’s hearts.
Title: Mad Dog Author: Ophelia Bell Series: Second Skin #1 Genre: Contemporary Military Romance
Not even the king of Los Angeles’s underground can stop me from loving Celeste.
Arturo Flores could make me disappear with a snap of his fingers, and nearly did. Limping away from a beatdown when I was seventeen didn’t change the fact that his daughter was worth the pain. Running into her in my tattoo shop twelve years later, she still makes my blood run hot with a glance.
But I’m not that clueless teenage boy anymore. And Celeste isn’t the only one I want.
Leo is a temptation I crave, but in our world, admitting desires like mine could get me killed. The gangbanger is as ruthless as he is beautiful, yet he can’t see anything beyond Celeste. That hurts like hell to admit, but I would sooner die at her crime lord father’s hands than let either of them get hurt.
I’m prepared to let them have each other when Leo comes to me with an offer. One that could connect the three of us in a way that flies in the face of the world we live in. His proposal ignites a fire in my veins. If it fails, we’ll all get burned, but for a man with nothing to lose, I’m just desperate enough to take that chance.
My pulse speeds up at the mere mention of what we did back then. “I thought we knew each other well enough.”
He tilts his head back and stares at the ceiling. “Maybe conversations aren’t really our thing.” Then he spears me with a sharp look that makes my insides go molten.
“Maybe not.” My heart pounds so hard it’s difficult to breathe. My feet have a mind of their own when I start to walk again. I pass by him, feeling his gaze on me all the way as I head around the corner and through the door to the locker rooms.
The space smells musty and old, a mix of stale sweat and lemon cleaner. There are no showers—just two rows of lockers with benches in front and a restroom with a trio of toilet stalls and a row of sinks beyond another door. The boys’ side is a mirror to the girls’ side, though less used due to the majority of students being female. The gleaming chrome of brand-new locks on the lockers catches the sparse light from a high window.
I pause in front of the locker at the far end. This was where it happened. My eyebrows twitch at the etched lines engraved into the metal in the center of the locker: M + C. Reaching out, I trace the letters. They weren’t there before. Did he come back? Or did these initials belong to some other lovesick teenage girl?
His intense gray eyes are fixed on my fingertips. He closes the distance, takes my hand, and raises my fingers to his lips.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, finally able to say to him what I never had the chance to until now. Taking a deep breath, I brace myself for a more detailed apology, but all thought disappears when he hauls me close and slams his mouth onto mine.
Ophelia Bell loves a good bad-boy and especially strong women in her stories. Women who aren’t apologetic about enjoying sex and bad boys who don’t mind being with a woman who’s in charge, at least on the surface, because pretty much anything goes in the bedroom.
Ophelia grew up on a rural farm in North Carolina and now lives in Los Angeles with her own tattooed bad-boy husband and four attention-whoring cats.
If you’d like to receive regular updates on Ophelia’s publications, freebies, and discounts, please subscribe to her mailing list: http://opheliabell.com/subscribe/
In Heart’s Landing, Evelyn wants to prove she’s a good manager of the Captain’s Cottage by the bay—a favorite place for weddings. Meanwhile, Ryan has invested his life savings to remodel the town’s old boatworks into a brand-new wedding venue.
When a Marine and his bride win the Wedding in a Week contest, they have seven days to put together a romantic, all-expenses-paid event. It’ll be written up in Weddings Today magazine. But will they choose Evelyn’s cottage or Ryan’s boatworks?
The rival business owners cozy up to the bride and groom, helping them plan their military wedding. And even though Evelyn and Ryan both grew up in Heart’s Landing, they learn they never truly knew each other until now. But can they trust each other when only one of them can win?
Evelyn is one of my favorite characters in this series so far. A bit of a work-a-holic, super competitive, incredibly caring and empathetic, but struggles to figure out where her place is going to be in the future. As she leads the Wedding in a Week couple through their preparations, she finds out that her biggest competitor may be the man of her dreams.
I would really like Ryan to come to my house and do some work. The description of The Boat Works after he completes renovations sounds so beautiful. He’s also a pretty nice guy, but need to win the Wedding in a Week competition to get his new venue off the ground – but how will that affect his simmering relationship with Evelyn?
A Waterfront Wedding doesn’t have just one romance either. The Wedding in a Week couple is just the most adorable pair I’ve seen in a long time. But things aren’t perfect, and the stress is getting to them. So Ryan and Evelyn make it their mission to help this super adorable and perfect couple through the stress and get them down the aisle.
But the big question is – will their budding relationship survive one of them losing the competition to the other? This whole dynaimc was handled brilliantly. There are hard feelings when you lose (and I’m not telling you who, but one of the does), and those hard feelings are difficult to deal with. But how things eventually work out – sigh – it’s romantic s all get-out and I want some more.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
Rescuing love is never easy… Veterinarian Dr. Louisa Coldiron comes from a long line of hardworking, rough riding, straight-shooting cowboys. Her father and brothers are cowboys and nearly every male in the small town of Santa Camino, Texas, is, was, or will be a cowboy. And experience has taught her that when a cowboy gets thrown into the mix, something gets broken. Falling in love with the horses she helps to rescue is easy. Pretending she isn’t falling for the sexy cowboy who teaches them to trust again…? Not so much. After years of roaming, Brody Vance feels he’s finally found a home at the Promise Point Horse Rescue Ranch and a woman he could easily love. But he knows a wounded heart when he sees one. Louisa has more in common with her patients than she’s willing to admit. Coaxing Louisa’s skittish heart into letting him take the reins of passion will take Brody’s tender expertise.
Brody hung up, shifted the truck into drive, and after checking his side mirror, guided the truck back onto the road.
When he’d gotten the call from Heather saying that she’d gotten pregnant during their one-night stand, Brody’s world had flipped upside-down. Those long months when she didn’t call, he’d nearly worried himself to death thinking about her and his unborn son’s welfare.
After Riley arrived, he’d learn how to work while worrying, and he’d learned how to deal with missing his son. He pushed through the heartache and focused on the job he had to do. Brody was pushing now, but he wasn’t making much headway.
He turned off the main road and followed the five-mile gravel road to Darby’s place. He parked in the shade of a juniper tree and slid out, making sure he had the satellite phone and his slicker before reaching to the back for his rifle.
As he headed towards the horse trailer, he saw a gnarled finger hook around one of the yellow, sunbaked curtains hanging over a dingy window. A second or two later, the front door opened, and Darby’s unmistakable form filled the shadow. A dingy gray pinch-front hat, a bushy ocher- colored beard, thin ribs, and bowlegs that resembled a wishbone clad in dirty jeans.
By Brody’s estimation, the man was near seventy. He’d never married and the only children he had were the bedraggled Australian cattle dog he called Fred and a horse that looked to be as old as Darby.
Darby let the screen door slam shut, nearly clipping Fred’s tail as he trotted out the door behind him. He stopped at the edge of the porch and bit into the half of a sliced sandwich, chewing slowly like a cow enjoying the first taste of spring grass. “You alone?”
Brody opened the trailer door. “Yeah, I’m alone.” Now was not the time for brooding reflection or an in-depth analysis of how accurate the old man’s words were. His impatience had destroyed one of the best chances he’d had at building intimacy with a woman he was in love with, and his son was in another state.
Mina is the author of the Coldiron Cowboys series and the Rough Creek series (2020 IMADJINN AWARDS FINALISTS).
She and her husband live on a farm in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. Along with reading and writing, she enjoys painting, photography, baking, and spending time with her rescue dogs, miniature horses, and donkeys. https://www.instagram.com/minabeckett/
Life in her corner of the world consists of long winter nights curled up by the fire, cheering on her favorite football teams in the fall, enduring March Madness in the spring and walking barefoot through her garden with a cold jar of tea in the summer ─ fireflies at sunset accompanied by a serenade of crickets and frogs, and lazy nights in the porch swing.
Rachel Ferrer thinks she’s already hit rock bottom, but then the ground crumbles beneath her feet. Alone, she is finally forced to face the darkness she’s been avoiding. Rachel doesn’t dare hope the spark of light in the distance might include Nicolas, even when she can’t forget the feel of his lips on hers.
Nicolas Rivera has always been the stable one. He is who others come to when their worlds shatter, but suddenly his life is the one in ruins. He doesn’t hope to connect with Rachel in the aftermath, but he discovers her in the last place he expected to. Uninhibited at last, the electricity between them finally ignites.
Is their flame enough for Rachel and Nicolas sift through the rubble, rebuild, and finally emerge, together, into the light?
Absolution is Volume 2 of the Lightning Crashes Duet and should be read after Temptation. Melt into this forbidden, slow-burn duet with a guaranteed happily ever after today.
Rachel lifted the quilt covering Nicolas and slipped beneath it. He made as much room for her as he could, but his legs were already hanging over the far arm, his back pressed against the cushions.
Rachel didn’t need much room as she snuggled into his side, tucking the quilt back around them. “It’s freezing in here,” she said, her voice husky and low, her breath feathering against his neck.
“You need to check your insulation,” he said. “And probably get new windows.”
“I’ll get right on that,” she said in a voice that implied the opposite.
She shivered, and Nicolas allowed himself the indulgence of pulling her closer against him. In the name of keeping her warm. “What are you doing up?”
Rachel’s hand found his waist under the blanket, her fingers icy against his bare skin, but he didn’t dare flinch, lest he scared her off. “I wanted to see if you showed up. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“It’s good you got some rest.”
“More like I sobbed myself to sleep in Naomi’s bed, but yeah, sleep was good. How are you?”
He sighed, at a loss for words to describe how he was feeling. His face ached, his body felt drawn, like he’d worked out too hard without enough food afterward. Nicolas couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. He wasn’t even sure he had a digestive tract anymore. Who had room for food when they were filled with heartbreak and betrayal? Was it possible to be yawning open with emptiness and full of dread and darkness all at the same time? It felt like the same thing, and yet entirely different.
Rachel’s hand was playing over his torso in a way that she probably didn’t even realize she was doing, but in a way that was distracting, allowing temptation to edge in on the periphery.
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
