Royals Undone Duet, Nana Malone

Have you been waiting for Lucas' story?
If you're like me, then July 24, 2018 is a day you'll want on your calendar...

Lucas…
Don’t get in trouble, they said. Don’t cause an incident. Oops.

I might be a newfound prince, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to say goodbye to my days of freedom. So when my brother, the king, asks me to babysit a diplomat’s daughter, my first thought is to say no… that is until I see her climbing out of a window with her dress tucked into her thong.

She might just be my kind of girl.

I just thought I'd mix business with pleasure...I didn’t plan to lose control of my heart.

Bryna…
I’ve been groomed by my parents to climb the social ladder all my life and I’m done with it. I want nothing from their royal world.
Now that I’m finally on my own, I can live where I want, date who I want, do who I want.
The one person I won’t be doing? My new accidental roommate.

Oh, he’s gorgeous and mysterious, and cheeky. He’s also friends with the king and a total jackass.
So basically, he’s never gonna get it...famous last words.

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But if you thought their story was done,
you'd be mistaken.
Lucas and Bryna will be back September 4, 2018...

I'll never stop fighting for her...no matter the stakes.

Lucas…
A year ago I found out I was a long lost prince. But with one lie, that’s all been undone.
But prince or pauper, I’m not going to stop fighting for Bryna. She may be the only thing I can count on right now.

Bryna…
I never meant to get in so deep with my royal roommate—but in my defense I didn't know.
If anyone else finds out his royal status my mother will meddle faster than you can say gold digger. More importantly, Lucas’s life could be in danger.

Because I’m not the only one with secrets.
And there’s a lot more at stake than heartbreak.

NOTE: This is a sequel - you must have read Royal Bastard to understand Bastard Prince!

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Author Bio

USA Today Bestselling Author, NANA MALONE’s love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she borrowed from her cousin on a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana at a precocious thirteen. She’s been in love with kick butt heroines ever since.

With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters. Waiting for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, Nana, meantime works out her drama, passion and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is.

The books in her series have been on multiple Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble best seller lists as well as the iTunes Breakout Books list and most notably the USA Today Bestseller list.

Until that ninja job comes through, you’ll find Nana working hard on additional books for her series as well as other fun, sassy romances for characters that won’t leave her alone. And if she’s not working or hiding in the closet reading, she’s acting out scenes for her husband, daughter and puppy in sunny San Diego.

Want to hit me up?

Just email me: nana@nanamaloneromance.com

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Scoring the Player: Indianapolis Eagles Book 2, Samantha Lind

A woman who's ready to settle down meets a man who appears to be allergic to the condition.  A man who's tired of the puck bunnies and wants someone real meets the one who just might tame him.  When they both get the chance to build something it'll take a lot more than knowing how to play the game to get them to their ultimate score.

With an alternating point of view we get greater insight into both Kinley and Brian.  Both people are ready for the next phase in their romantic lives but aren't sure if their person is really out there.  A coincidence of mutual friends brings them both together and their connection was apparently immediate...though you wouldn't know it from Kinley's view.  At least not until she seemingly contradicts herself later in the scene's wrap-up.  Inconsistencies like that didn't bode well for the rest of the story for me.  Their connection begins something neither wants to end but distance and lifestyles may become too much for them to overcome so they decide to hold off on pursuing anything beyond the platonic connection.

Honestly, though, that's all Kinley's decision.  Brian merely agrees to go along with that until he can wear her down and prove that he's in it for her, for the long haul.  I enjoyed Brian's character more than Kinley's.  There was something a bit more genuine and determined about him that charmed me more than Kinley's avoidance and hesitance.

I felt that the first half of the book was quite juvenile and superficial in writing style.  It was difficult for me to get into the story and I honestly skimmed so much you'd think I skipped whole chapters.  And truthfully?  I didn't miss out on anything.  Everything read more like a teenager's journal or diary entry.  Once things became intimate, however, the punch was there.  Though it really only packed a punch when the sexy times were being described.  Otherwise the writing style still had the same ho-hum feeling of meh.  Curse words added to the inner dialogue as well as during moments of intense exclamation in bed seemed thrown in so it wouldn't feel like I was reading a YA author trying on a New Adult genre for size.  The characters' voices were also interchangeable.  Though they experienced different things I couldn't find much of a noted difference between the way each spoke.  Neither of their personalities really shone through consistently.

I will say, though, that when their dramatic conflict came I didn't really expect it.  Not in the timing, but what actually happened.  It was maybe third on my list of possibilities for conflict and one I shrugged off near the beginning when the exposition was detailing what to expect for each as individual characters.  But to my surprise, it was handled quite well.  I was impressed the way the author handled the emotional recovery.  While there were things about the situation that bothered me as well as using so many timeline fastforwards, there wasn't a way to wrap the book up in the few pages the author left herself to finish the story satisfactorily.

Despite all that, their ending was sweet and well-earned.  Their supporting cast was definitely supportive and I wouldn't mind reading their stories as they come out.  I liked the story but am far from loving it.  This is my first book by this author and I'm on the fence about seeking them out for more.  They did tackle deep issues as well as effectively kept the story mostly light and happy so they do have a few things going for them that I commend.

*$3.99!

Crazy, Stupid Love, K.L. Grayson

When the bad boy wants the good girl...

June 20, 2018

K.L. Grayson introduces...

There’s a special place in hell for a man like me—a man who shamelessly sleeps with his best friend’s little sister, knowing he’ll never be what she needs. A man who takes because the only thing he has to offer in return is a broken past that’s destined to destroy his future.

I was the kid who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks with shit parents and clothes that had been handed down one too many times. I stole to feed my sister, fought to protect her, and I’ll always be the guy your parents don’t want you to bring home.

So yeah, that’s me. Lincoln Bennett. Adley Allen’s walk on the wild side. Her dirty little secret. And I’m okay with that—ninety-nine percent of the time. Unfortunately today is in that one percent when it doesn’t sit well with me. For some strange reason, I want to be around to celebrate all of Adley’s successes. I want to be here when she gets her first job and take her out to dinner after her first shift. I want to be the one she depends on, the person she calls when she has a bad day. Or a great day. Or any kind of day.

I want more than her body. I want her heart. But men like me don’t get women like her.

At least not to keep.

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Also Available

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AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

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AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Author Bio

K.L. Grayson resides in a small town outside of St. Louis, MO.  She is entertained daily by her extraordinary husband, who will forever inspire every good quality she writes in a man.  Her entire life rests in the palms of six dirty little hands, and when the day is over and those pint-sized cherubs have been washed and tucked into bed, you can find her typing away furiously on her computer.  She has a love for alpha-males, brownies, reading, tattoos, sunglasses, and happy endings…and not particularly in that order.

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Quick Reads and Quick Reviews 21

  

• Carry and Drag: Open Wounds Book 1, Michelle Frost
• His Accidental Boyfriend: Blackfish Island Book 1, Tragen Moss
• Beholden, Kris T. Bethke

This was not what I was expecting.  What I was expecting far underestimated who these two characters were.  I truly loved Dagen and everything about him.  His determination, intelligence, heart...so much heart, physical description, care of Ollie, his understanding, his genuine openness.  There was so much to love about this gentle giant.  Ollie grew on me.  He was understandably damaged and had a past full of hurt and abandonment that his process and growth took time.  I absolutely approved that their attraction began at a slow simmer and then grew warmer and warmer as they got to know one another.  While I would have liked a bit more steam on the page, I wasn't disappointed with what was there.  The additions of Dagen's routine and goals was appropriate in length and detail.  It gave us insight into just how difficult Dagen's goals would be to achieve and how triumphant to feel when some were achieved.  And the drama at the end was big and completely unexpected.  I was surprised and also not upset at the events.  It suited the crazy that Ollie was trying to escape and also gave us a clearer picture of what to expect with Nico's story.  I genuinely enjoyed all the side characters and am eager to read each of their stories.  4 stars.

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I've read this premise of fake boyfriends that become more quite a few times.  And while I always have my doubts in the beginning that the drama won't outshine the budding romance, there have been quite a few pleasant surprises lately.  His Accidental Boyfriend is definitely one of them.  I loved the alternating POV because we get insight into not just these individuals but also a better understanding of their background without a lot of exposition, as well as their more immediate reactions to everything that happens in the story.  Stanley is a lot of fun.  He's a happy person with more than a little dazzle to go with his unconventional appearance in addition to a whole lot of mother hen instincts thrown in underneath it all.  He also has a way of getting himself into troubled relationships.  His newest attempt is not an exception though the circumstances are quite different.  And his new "boyfriend", Garrett Tanaka, is none the wiser for longer than anticipated.

What I really loved about this whole thing was that the reveal didn't happen in an overly dramatic way.  When it came out it wasn't without drama, but it didn't create so much tension and feelings of betrayal that that was the focus of the rest of the story.  Instead, the focus was on the two men and their growing feelings and learning to navigate between them and their unfortunate relationship hangups.  It's also pretty formula to have the one who created the fake situation to be the one who needs redemption in the end, but here that wasn't the case.  It was flipped and it was done well.  Everything about the conflict and resolution was so very right for the individuals and for the story.  The big resolution was slightly confusing but not so much that it detracted too much from the reason it was happening.  And the ending was so tender, so sweet, that I felt a smile on my face in real life.  (A big deal if you don't know me...)  This was such a good story.  Funny, a quirky cast, a little angst to give you a lump in your throat, satisfying steam, and enough tenderness to round it all out.  4.5 stars.

*$3.99

There were a lot of pieces to this story that were barely held together by the romance, mainly because the romance felt like a bit of an afterthought.  Like it was added to keep our interest since the other events felt like blips on a timeline rather than a fully cohesive and well-rounded story.  That being said, there were individual parts that really grabbed my attention.  The idea behind being "beholden" and Julian's reasoning behind his choice, his talents and how he used them, the sinister plot running throughout the story, the family drama, the antagonists and where other stories might go to further solve that, the side characters...  There was so much to work with but there was something missing to integrate all the pieces to make the story really sing.  Taken individually this story had great promise.  Taken together, however, and the story fell short.  The part that truly fell short was the romance.  There wasn't much romance at all.  No building of a relationship, no reasoning behind Wes' choice besides an initial attraction and a convenience of sharing power, no relationship history to explain either man's actions together or going forward...  I was at a loss here to know what to feel about them.  And the fact that we only get Julian's POV meant that most of those questions remained unanswered all the way through the end of the story.  If there is more and this becomes a series I'll probably read it, if only to satisfy my curiosity about the men and the darker forces at work behind them.  3 stars.

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Anywhere With You, Christina Elle

Coming June 27, 2018

A romantic comedy featuring a sports star, an awkward setting, and a fake relationship...

You are cordially invited to... tick off the bride. 

Teegan Michaels has attended six weddings for her sorority sisters dateless and she refuses to go to the last one alone. Not when she has a perfectly respectable—not to mention hot—NFL player ready to save her from humiliation. Who cares that he’s the bride’s ex-fiancé and only wants to go for revenge?

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AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Excerpt

She peeked a glance up at him, catching mostly only a broad shoulder because of his height. His long arms swung at his sides and his posture stern as he stared at the romantic beach scene in front of them.

They were about thirty feet from the other guests when Wes slipped his hand into hers.

She stiffened on contact and her brain shut down.

Low, so only she could hear, he said, "We have to sell it, remember?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything while her heart did backhand springs in her rib cage. Holy crap. She was totally holding Wes Stevenson’s hand.

And she totally sounded like a teenybopper thinking that.

Be cool, Tee. Be cool.

It was going to be tough though since her version of cool had never been anything close to his. Or anyone else's for that matter.

Standing up straighter, she closed her hand around his, taking in the feel of skin against skin. The closer they got to the already filled area, the more erratic her heartbeat became. She was going to face Juliet, her family, and friends. And they were all going to chastise Teegan for bringing Wes.

Damn. She wished she'd thought about that before this moment. She could've feigned sickness for the entire weekend. What was going around right now? Yellow fever? Malaria? She'd even take a good case of salmonella. Anything to get her out of seeing the judgment in everyone's eyes. The same judgment she saw at every other Delta Gam wedding she'd attended.

With a date, without a date...it didn't matter. It followed Teegan anyway.

The man in question didn't seem bothered by their impending fate. He stood tall and wore a confident smile. Zero nerves radiated off him.

The Ice Box, they'd called him on the football field. Because he was always cool under pressure. Man, what she wouldn't give to have some of that superpower right now.

He squeezed her hand, which made her look up at him. He lifted his chin, gesturing in front of them. She looked toward a receiving line that included the bride and groom.

Juliet and the man she'd left Wes for.

Excellent. Teegan couldn't wait to greet them both on this glorious, fantastic evening.

Why, oh why, had she agreed to this? It would’ve been better not to attend at all, rather than bring Juliet’s ex to Juliet’s wedding.

Oh, God. Her heart was beating at an unhealthy rate. She might faint.

Hey, that wasn’t a bad idea. If she fainted—

The hand attached to hers tightened.

Wes. She was doing this for Wes. Just think about that. This had to be a million times worse for him.

Author Bio

Christina believes that laughter really is the best medicine, which is why in her stories she blends a healthy dose of hilarious hijinks with gritty suspense.

When she’s not writing fun contemporary romance or quirky romantic suspense, Christina can be found devouring books in every genre, watching Chris Hemsworth on TV, playing board games with her family, working out, checking out Chris Hemsworth on Facebook, napping, stalking Chris Hemsworth on Instagram, and shopping…for Chris Hemsworth’s latest DVD.

Christina lives near Baltimore with her husband and two sons, who give her an endless supply of humorous material to write about.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Maryland Romance Writers.

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