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Friday, January 15, 2016
Diverse Reader: A Piece of Me: R.E. Hargrave ~Monthly Feature~
Diverse Reader: A Piece of Me: R.E. Hargrave ~Monthly Feature~: My monthly feature, A Piece of Me, is back for 2016! This year's first creative wonder for the year is author R.E. Hargrave. As you kn...
Thursday, January 14, 2016
#IABBAddicts GUEST AUTHOR & #GIVEAWAY: Suanne Laqueur
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Author: Suanne Laqueur
Title: Here to Stay (Book 3 of The Fish Tales)
Pages: 350
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Date published: January 14, 2016
SYNOPSIS
Suanne Laqueur’s Fish Tales series follows the extraordinary romance of Erik Fiskare and Daisy Bianco. When they meet in college, she is an aspiring ballet dancer and he is learning the behind-the-scenes art of stagecraft. Quickly they are drawn into a romance both youthfully passionate and maturely soulful. Their love story thrives within a world of creativity and artistry until it is changed forever by a shocking act of violence on their campus.
Laqueur has chosen a unique slant on an issue sadly prevalent in today’s world, by focusing on the victims of violence and the effect of trauma on human connection. The first book in the series, The Man I Love, won a gold medal for realistic fiction in the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Awards. Told from Erik’s point of view, it follows his emotional journey to salvage the relationships he destroyed, including his estrangement from Daisy which never ceased to haunt him. He equated the end of a love affair with desertion, but now he sees leaving isn’t the end of loving. He must go back and finish, or he will never be free to go forward and start again.
The second book, Give Me Your Answer True, inverts the narrative and tells Daisy’s side of the story, as she works to separate her evolution as an adult from the unresolved guilt and grief of her youth. The loss of Erik’s love weighing heavy on her heart, she must learn to hold onto her accountability without letting it become her identity. To find and give her answers true.
The third book, Here to Stay, is a continuation of Daisy and Erik’s remarkable love story, as they begin a new phase of life together, knowing now that happily ever afters are built, not found. Though separated for twelve years, the extraordinary bond forged in their youth has endured. But when your soulmate has caused you indescribable pain, how easy is it to forgive? How much trust is needed to place your heart back into the hands that once broke it? How much faith does it take to ask the question, "Do you still want me?" and believe in the reply: “I still want us.”
This gripping series has been hailed as a new kind of “emotionally intelligent romance.” The books explore themes of love and sexuality, the effects of trauma, the burden of unfinished business and the power of reconciliation. Through Erik and Daisy’s experiences, we reflect on what it means to be a soul mate, a partner and a lover. What it means to be a hero, not a victim, and fight for what you love. What it means to live the truth of who you are and what you feel.
EXCERPT
from Here to Stay
It’s a strange thing to find a lost lover in your hands again. Like finding your childhood baseball glove in an attic box of memories. You’re sure it won’t fit. But the heat of your palm, a flex and a bend. A cautious knead of the leather and a tentative reach into the furthest recesses… It knows you. It remembers you.
It fits you.“Do I feel the same?” Daisy asked, her voice a silken caress.After twelve years, Erik thought, of course not. He had loved a girl. It was a woman’s body up against him now, with the heft of wisdom and the weight of experience. He ran his fingers up her backbone and felt all the bits of new fused steel, overlaid with the strong assurance in her muscles and the soft aplomb of her skin. She was a hundred times more beautiful. A thousand times more thrilling.And as her blue-green eyes stared into his, he was keenly aware of her vulnerability.“You feel more,” he said, his hands moving along her body, trying to remember how she felt when he last touched her. Thin. Beyond ballerina thin—she was drugged thin at the end of their days in college. Yet beautiful to him. Never anything but stunningly easy on his eyes and liquid in his embrace and sweet in his mouth.“You feel right,” she said, her own hands gliding along his limbs, in and out of him. “Maybe a little thinner.”“I probably am. I lost and gained weight over and over. Depending on how I was feeling at the time. When the dark times came around, I’d stop eating.”“I know, but…” Her delicate, arched eyebrows flickered in her brow. “I think over the years, in my head, I made you bigger than you were. Or maybe I beat myself down into something smaller. But now I remember your body. I remember mine with it.”She was kissing him, pulling him to roll on top of her again. The digital clock on her bedside table read 2:06 in the morning. They had been going at it like possessed demons for hours now and no matter how tight he held or how hard he clung, Erik could not get both arms around making love to her. Too much feeling grabbed at him, clamoring for attention and precedence. Euphoria, lust, guilt and sadness were four wild stallions chained to each limb, intent on tearing him apart. Yet at the center of the jerking, pulling emotion, his heart was calm and accepting. Quietly riding out the storm, safe in the knowledge he was living his truth, living the life he was born to live.“Don’t leave me,” she whispered under him.“I can’t,” he said. “I’d never breathe again.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suanne Laqueur’s first novel, The Man I Love won a gold medal in the 2015 Readers' Favorite Book Awards. Its other 2015 accolades include the Beverly Hills Book Award, a gold medal from the eLit Book Awards and a current finalist with the Kindle Book Awards.
Suanne graduated from Alfred University with a double major in dance and theater. She taught at the Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts in Croton-on-Hudson for ten years. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two chil-dren. An avid reader, cook and gardener.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY
1 Signed Copy of Here to Stay
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
COVER REVEAL #TeaserTuesday #AuthorToAuthor: Forgotten Awakenings by Lisa Bilbrey
Forgotten Awakenings by Lisa Bilbrey
Awakenings Series Book 2
"Lisa Bilbrey brings you a very different kind of story."
"This book blew me away. It shattered a lot of theories I had already made regarding polyamory."
"This book is full of gooey goodness .. wrapped up in a delicious package ..."
"One of the best books I have ever read."
"LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!"
Cover designed by J.C. Clarke of The Graphics Shed
jcclarkeauthor@gmail.com
~*~Summary~*~
Two bullets — one just under her right breast and the other in the middle of her left leg. That’s all it had taken to destroy Elle Reid, to leave her weak and useless. Just two little bullets.
Elle gave into her desires and allowed herself to love. The road to redemption hasn't been easy for her, or her lovers, but together, she, Sadie, Callum, and Derek strive for a life of peace and harmony. But will they get their happily ever after, or will a madwoman's quest for revenge shatter their dreams?
~*~Excerpt~*~
“How much longer?” Sadie grumbled, one hand resting
casually on Elle’s knee. Callum sat on the other side of Elle, his arm
stretched across the back of the red, vinyl bench they were perched on while
waiting for a table. Derek sat next to Sadie, who was dragging her fingers
through his dark hair.
When they arrived at The Sardine Can, a charming
little seafood joint down on the pier, there had been a small wait, but several
other patrons had been seated before them — people who had arrived after they
did. Elle tried to brush it off, while Sadie had made her displeasure clear by
huffing, complaining loudly, and outright whining about the wait.
“I’ll go ask her again.” Derek kissed the side of
Sadie’s head before he walked over to the hostess, and once again asked how
much longer were going to have to wait. An annoyed expression filled his face
as he nodded at whatever she’d told him and walked back over to them.
“She said it’ll
be at least another twenty minutes,” he grumbled, sliding onto the bench next to
Sadie. He took hold of her hand, lifting it to his lips. “Though, there are at
least five empty tables.”
“Hmm,” Elle hummed, shifting her attention back to the
podium, noticing the way the hostess was glaring at them, and in that moment,
their long wait made sense. “Ah, of course.”
“Of course what?” Callum asked, his confusion evident.
With a shake of her head, Elle shifted her eyes to
him. “It’s us. She has a problem with us.”
~*~Biography~*~
Obsessive, compulsive, slightly
crazed, but enough about her personality. First and foremost, Lisa Bilbrey is a
mom to three and a wife to one. She loves to write, and spends the majority of
everyday writing. It's who she is, and what she's meant to be doing. Words are
her life, the air she breathes, and the nutrients of her soul.
Finding a love
in the written word, Lisa Bilbrey started writing as a way to express herself
and let her voice be heard. From the first word she wrote, she'd found her
heart and soul. Always willing to learn, she's
spends much of her time trying to improve as a storyteller.
~*~Links~*~
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