Tuesday, June 23, 2015

"The Glamour Series (Books 1-3)" by Maggie Marr

EXCERPT
The Glamour Series
(Books 1-3)
by Maggie Marr


The Glamour Series (Books 1-3) by Maggie Marr consists of the first three books in the Glamour series: Hard Glamour (FREE), Broken Glamour, and Fast Glamour. Also available: Easy Glamour and Luxe Glamour.


Description
Now you can get books 1-3 of the Glamour series in one bundle at a fantastic price.
Hard Glamour, Book 1 (FREE)
Small town girl Lane Channing is alone in the world with nothing left to lose when she sets out across the country to make her LA dreams come true. The 'big risk' to move to LA isn't such a risk when you've already lost everything. Bad-boy movie star Dillon MacAvoy has a dark past and a goal to be the biggest star in the world. He doesn't have the time or the inclination for love. Dillon is on the brink of superstardom when Lane Channing enters his life. She's young and naive and he's hard and experienced. Their attraction wild and undeniable, a fierce fire that heats up the LA night and could destroy both their lives.
Amanda Legend is a Hollywood princess whose glam life is destroyed when her new stepmother, (also her former best friend) has Amanda cut off from her plush Hollywood lifestyle. Ryan Sinclair, a bad-boy star with a multitude of bad-habits, nearly dies and must turn to the one woman who loathes him - Amanda Legend - for help. Down on her luck with nowhere to turn, Amanda Legend takes a job she doesn't want, from a man she doesn't like, and unfortunately and inexplicably is wildly attracted to. Now she must fight her overwhelming urge to fall into Ryan Sinclair's arms, because this bad-boy addict is not the kind of man Amanda wants in her life.
Fast Glamour, Book 3
Rhiannon Bliss fell in love with Sterling Legend, a member of the Hollywood elite, when she was a teenager, but her family forced her to leave Sterling behind. Years later, Sterling and Rhiannon find their way back to one another, but horrible family secrets threaten their newfound love. Is there any way that Rhiannon and Sterling can have a forever love when their families were so desperately hurt by each other in the past?

Excerpt from Hard Glamour
The winding roads down the hill circled and curved and circled again. I leaned forward, trying to read the street sign on my right. I’d driven by the big white house with a Mercedes and a BMW parked in the drive three times. I pressed the brake and stopped in the middle of the road… shit. I was lost. The sun sank in the west, and even with my sunglasses on, the harsh light blinded my eyes. I pulled hard on the wheel of my Jeep and turned left. There had to be a way out of this maze of streets and back to my motel - I just hadn’t found it yet. I sped down the road.
Orange-and-white barriers closed off the way I needed to go. Three giant white semi-trucks lined the road I needed to drive down. I could back up, turn around, and try to find my way back to my motel by going the other direction, but I wasn’t sure where I was. My fifteen-year-old Jeep didn’t have power steering, much less GPS. Instead, I pressed the clutch and pushed the stick into first gear, then wove around the barricade. The sun beat into my eyes and I squinted. I swiveled my neck to get a good look at the giant white semitrucks.
There was a planet logo and a studio name painted on the cab doors of the trucks. My heart kajolted in my chest. These were production trucks. Someone, somewhere on this street, was making a movie. I craned my neck to the right and lifted my foot from the brake, and my Jeep rolled forward. In front of the last truck was a giant RV. Was there a star inside? Someone I’d have seen on the big screen? My eyes widened and my heart beat faster. This was the very reason I’d shucked my golden opportunity in KC and taken the Big Risk. I wanted to be part of this world. I wanted to make movies. To work with people who made movies. For me, movies were magic.
Metal clanged and I slammed my foot onto the brake pedal.
“Hey! Watch the fuck where you’re going!”
Standing beside my Jeep with his eyes burning fire was the best-looking guy I’d ever seen. His white T-shirt strained over his chest and his black hair blazed in the sun. His arms were thick with muscle, and a giant tattoo wound over his forearm to where his hand was balled into a fist. The same fist that he’d just pounded onto the hood of my Jeep. His bright blue eyes pierced through my window. He squinted and his full lips pulled tight , then he walked around to my side of the Jeep.
 Up close he looked even better. Hot little flashes pulsed over my skin. His cheekbones were high and cut hard. His lips were full. His golden skin was perfect, flawless , his body muscled and tight under his clothes. With so much masculine perfection so near, I could barely breathe.
“D…d…do? Do I know you?” I stammered out. He looked so familiar. That face. My eyes dropped down to his neck and roamed over his body.
“Do you know me?” He shook his head and rolled his eyes up toward the sky. “Oh, sweetheart.” He crossed his arms and the muscles in his forearms flinched. “There is no way that you don’t recognize this face, is there?” He pointed at his own mug. He looked at me like I’d fallen out of the sky from an alien planet. The sun lit him from behind and I squinted.
Did I know this guy? Did I recognize his face? I could sit here all day and watch his muscles tense. He waited and finally he pressed his face forward with a bored expression. “Even as good as you look, you’ve got to come up with a better line than that.”


Praise for the Books
"Out of this world! Hard Glamour was full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and emotional breaking points! This book has so many great side stories that kept my turning the pages! Congratulations Maggie Marr!! 5 out of 5 stars!!" ~ Hot Romance Novel Blog
"Broken Glamour has an emotional plot which keeps the reader engrossed and as well as forming a strong affinity for the novel's two principals, Lane and Dillon's story is evolved further." ~ kirstyv
"Maggie Marr has done it again! This is a wonderful book. The characters come alive and are very relatable. I highly recommend Fast Glamour and the series. Definitely worth the time if you are looking for some great pleasure reading." ~ Amanda Weber
"I love all three of these books! Each story leads to the next, and keeps the reading wanting more. The Glamour Series is an exciting Hollywood adventure, with each couple having a unique story!" ~ LCH

About the Author
Maggie Marr is the author of hot contemporary romance and women's fiction. She writes smart, sexy, women and the men they choose to love. Still working in Hollywood, she got her start pushing the mail cart at ICM where she became a motion picture literary agent.
She is a member of RWA and President of her local chapter the Los Angeles Romance Authors (LARA) and legal counsel for Women's Fiction Writers Association (WFWA).
Maggie loves all things pop culture and when she isn't writing she can be found reading or exercising her rescue pup.


Links



Saturday, June 20, 2015

"Seven Sons" by Lili St. Germain

FREE
EXCERPT
Seven Sons
(Gypsy Brothers Book 1)
by Lili St. Germain


Seven Sons, the first book in the Gypsy Brothers series by Lili St. Germain, is currently FREE. Also available: Six Brothers, Five Miles, Four Score, Three Years, Two Roads, and One Love.


Description
My father was most certainly NOT an innocent man. As the leader of the Gypsy Brothers MC, he was guilty of many things. But he died for a crime that he didn’t commit, framed by an enemy within who then stole his club and everything he had ever worked to protect.
Including my innocence.
When Dornan Ross framed my father, he set into motion a series of events that could never be undone. My father was murdered by Dornan Ross and his sons when I was fifteen years old.
Before my father died, Dornan and his sons stole my innocence, branded my skin and in doing so, ensured that their lives would be prematurely cut short. That they would suffer.
I’ve just turned twenty-one, and I’m out for blood. I'm out for revenge.
But I didn't expect to fall for Jase, the youngest brother in the club.
I didn't expect that he would turn my world upside down, yank my heart out of my chest and ride away into the sunset with it.
Now, I'm faced with an impossible choice - Jase, or avenging my father's death?
Note: This story unfolds over seven volumes approx. 25-30,000 words each. Please note this book is dark romance and deals with serious themes including rape, violence and murder.


Excerpt
Confucius said, "Before embarking upon
a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
I planned to dig seven.
Sometimes I don’t think about it for hours at a time. Sometimes, a whole day will pass, and it’ll be there, under the surface, burning my insides with the brutality of its truth. My truth.
And I’ll get home from my dead-end job in this dead-end fucking town in the asshole of Nebraska, and I’ll have almost made it through a whole day of not thinking about it, about my father and Dornan Ross and his sons.
But then I’ll do something without thinking, like undress to go to bed, or slide under the covers of my bed. And I’ll see the marks they branded on my right hip – seven horizontal lines, each stacked on top of each other, made by casting the blunt edge of a butcher’s knife into fire and then pressing it into my flesh. A line for Dornan Ross and a line for each of his six older sons. Notches on a bedpost. Scarred for a lifetime so that I can never forget. Some are thicker than others, some short and others long, but each one a devastating reminder of everything they took from me that night.
Even if I stay in my stale clothes to avoid seeing my scars, I still can’t escape them. I never sleep well. I toss and turn, fitful and drenched in sweat, awakening from nightmares where they find me and turn the knife to the sharp side. Where they don’t just brand me – they cut me until I am dead, so I won’t talk to the police. I know things, see.  I know things that the police don’t, about purchased alibis and body disposal spots, about too many girls who went missing and too many men who kept too many secrets.
I used to wish every day and every night to forget about my father’s murderer and what he did to us. Not anymore. Now I want to remember every tiny detail so that I can exact my revenge.
Tomorrow is different. Tomorrow is my twenty-first birthday, the day I gain access to my secret inheritance. The several hundred thousand that my father managed to hide before Dornan framed him for the murder of a policeman and his family, a crime that Dornan and his eldest son committed as retribution for a drug bust that almost wiped the club out. It might be dirty money – my father wasn’t above money laundering and drug manufacturing – but it was his money. Dornan managed to seize control of the rest when he enacted his devastating betrayal.
Tomorrow is truly my birthday, for I will become another person. Today my name is Juliette Portland, but tomorrow I will wake up as someone else entirely.
Someone who will bring Dornan Ross and the Gypsy Brothers Motorcycle Club to their knees.


Praise for the Book
"What a story of revenge!!, A good read ... A good mix of love and hate.. It is definitely a page turner and I am anxious for the next book to come out!!" ~ Sandra Schanck
"This book is what I want in biker books. It has a bit of everything, the violence is shocking and ugly, emotions are all over the place, I love some of the characters and hate others. The writing is fantastic, I feel as if I am there watching everything unravel and I am scared of what is going to happen next. The story has me sucked in completely and I am going to be impatient waiting for every next book in the series. Highly recommend to read." ~ Peta Benjamin
"Seven Sons is mostly about the dark side of life, dealing with a deep look into a victim that of violence that is out for revenge and willing to risk her life to get it. It is not for the reader looking for a nice love story with happy ever after ending in this episode and the description of the next episode looks like more of the same theme." ~ Jane Jones
"I love a good biker book and this one did not fail to meet my expectations. Definite must read, you won't be disappointed" ~ Beatrice Valenzuela
"First this book is awesome. It gets you roped in from the beginning. [...] You will love this book and you will want to help Samantha exact revenge. You will want to get revenge for her." ~ Amazon Customer


About the Author
Lili writes dark, disturbing romance. Her USA Today bestselling Gypsy Brothers series focuses on a morally bankrupt biker gang and the girl who seeks her vengeance upon them. The Cartel series is a prequel trilogy of full-length novels that explores the beginnings of the club; the first book, Cartel, is out now.
Lili quit corporate life to focus on writing and so far is loving every minute of it. Her other loves in life include her gorgeous husband and beautiful daughter, good coffee, Tarantino movies and spending hours on Pinterest.
She loves to read almost as much as she loves to write.


Links




Friday, June 19, 2015

"Luna's Lost Ball" by R. A. Milnes II

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY
Luna's Lost Ball
(Shiloh and Friends Book 1)
by R. A. Milnes II


Luna's Lost Ball, the first book in the new Shiloh and Friends series by R. A. Milnes II, is suitable for children ages 3 to 8. This book blast and giveaway is brought to you by Mother Daughter Book Promotion Services.


Description
Luna is a Labrador retriever and she has lost her most favorite ball. Follow Shiloh and her friends in a tale of friendship, teamwork, sharing, and reward as they help Luna find her lost ball.

Excerpt

Praise for the Book
"Luna and her friends are very relate-able characters for kids. The friends have a task to complete, but learn it is much easier to ask for help than struggle with the problem themselves. The images are vivid and I love that there are little bubbles when each one speaks. Great book." ~ Paranormal Romance and Authors That Rock
"Wonderful book for small children! My twins are 4 years old and loved the story and colorful backgrounds! We are anxiously waiting the next in the collection!" ~ Marianne Halliday

My Review


By Lynda Dickson
When Luna the Labrador loses her favorite yellow ball, she asks Shiloh for help. Shiloh, in turn, seeks help from her many friends around the farm. Will Luna get her ball back with the help of Shiloh and friends?
Shiloh and Luna are two dogs based on the author's real pets. The story is told only in dialogue, with each character's speech designated by a small icon. As they become more proficient readers, the kids will have fun taking turns reading out the parts of the different animals.
The illustrations are bright and colorful, with plenty to keep young eyes occupied. The kids will learn their colors as they read along, with many references to different colored objects. They will also learn to identify different animals, with a selection of farm animals being featured. This might be a good opportunity to reinforce the different noises animals make, as well. You can even get the kids to count different things, such as the flowers, clouds, and trees. And it's all wrapped up with a nice message that friends can work together to solve a problem.
A fun read with a lot of teaching opportunities.

From the Author
I am a business professional working in the healthcare industry. Luna’s Lost Ball began as a gift to my niece and nephew. I have such love for them that I wanted to give them something that they can hold on to. The beauty of this work is that I am able to incorporate my dogs, Shiloh and Luna, into telling a story of friendship, teamwork, sharing, and reward.
I hope that you enjoy this story and it brings your family joy each time you read it. My goal is to continue to write more stories under the Shiloh and Friends brand.

Giveaway
Enter the blast-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card or PayPal cash.


Links



Wednesday, June 17, 2015

"Family Blood" by Marvin J. Wolf

ON SALE for $0.99
EXCERPT
Family Blood:
The True Story of the Yom Kippur Murders
by Marvin J. Wolf


Author Marvin J. Wolf stops by today to share an excerpt from Family Blood: The True Story of the Yom Kippur Murders, which will be ON SALE for only $0.99 for a limited time.
For another book by this author, please check out my blog post on Rotten Apples: True Stories of New York Crime & Mystery.

Description
Gerald Woodman, an Englishman and an Orthodox Jew, came to American penniless and hungry for the good life. By 1980 he had gained and lost two fortunes, had built his plastics company into a cash cow that supported his large extended family in great luxury.
Killed in 1985 along with his wife Vera, the police asked Vera's sister if the Woodmans had any enemies, she replied, "Yes, their sons."
Family Blood follows the investigation of these murders and reveals a story of the American Dream gone wrong. Gerald, behind his facade of charm, piety and filial warmth, was a ruthless, amoral businessman, a philandering husband, a ferociously abusive father, and a compulsive gambler. His sons, Neil and Stewart, inherited his charm and business principles. This is the story of the hidden dynamics of an outwardly successful American family that came to a shocking and violent end. It is also the story of a clan of whose menfolk guarded a dark secret from their wives - and everyone else - for three generations. Further it is the chronicle of two dogged police detectives who exposed the Woodman's sordid secrets to the light of justice.

All four Woodman sons (Neil rear left, Stewart front right).

Excerpt
Seven-thirty. Time to rock and roll.
While Sonny and Jesse went to urinate, Steve tossed three singles on the table for a tip, nodded to the waitress, then strolled to the cashier and paid the bill. Sweeping everything into his pocket, he scarcely noticed if the change was correct, his mind racing nervously through his plan for the night.
Steve wished he had better radios. Those damned walkie-talkies the Professor had loaned him were next to worthless. Maybe he’d better try them one more time before the job. They might work better at night.
Mike Dominguez was at the motel, a few blocks away. Steve decided to pick him up about eight-thirty.
Dominguez, sometimes known by his prison handle, “Baby A,” was a fleshy, olive-skinned, dark-haired man of average height who appeared younger than his twenty-six years. He was a burglar, but occasionally worked as a roofer.
Steve decided to go over things with Dominguez one more time, just to make sure he had it right. Mike was a good man, within his limitations, but he didn’t always understand things the first time.
Dominguez didn’t do a lot of deep thinking. He hid his shallow intellect behind a wall of silence, earning a reputation as an enigma. Unlike Steve, who rarely missed a chance to expound upon his many adventures, Mike did not boast about his night work. In fact, he said very little about anything.
Steve liked that. Dominguez’s silent quality gave Steve confidence that no matter what dirty job Mike was asked to do, if the cops ever nailed him for it, Mike would never roll over and snitch on Steve, not even to save himself. Steve seldom bet, but he would put his life on that.
On the other hand, Steve knew that Mike wasn’t up to handling a big job on his own. He’d fucked up the hit on that broad in Vegas, put five into her boyfriend and the guy just ran away to call the cops. Mike was lucky to have gotten away with that, but he had cost Steve a fat fee. So Mike’s punishment was to be demoted to lookout for this one.
Before picking up Mike, Steve decided, he’d have to deal with Jesse. Now that he’d gone and rammed that car, Jesse was out for the actual hit. No way he could let him near the condo when it went down—Jesse had to stay away. That meant Steve and Sonny would be in the underground garage with no lookout. No warning.
They’d have to risk it.
Finally, Steve reminded himself to double-check the guns.
After a brief huddle in the restaurant’s narrow parking lot, Sonny, following Steve’s orders, went across the street to Steve’s rented gold Camaro, took one of the Professor’s radios from the trunk, and handed the other two to Steve. Steve climbed into the passenger seat of Jesse’s battered blue-green 1960 Buick, shoving empty cardboard boxes into the backseat with the others.
“How the fuck can you live like this?” growled Steve, angry again at how his brother managed to screw up everything he touched. “When are you gonna get rid of this damn trash,” he raged, indicating the boxes piled high in the backseat.
Jesse mumbled something about recycling, then wisely shut up.
Driving the Camaro, Majoy pulled up behind the Buick, ending the conversation, and Jesse made a right out of the parking lot onto Purdue, then stopped at the corner of Santa Monica to wait for the light. The boulevard was jammed, as usual, and it took them almost five minutes to reach Sepulveda, less than half a mile away. Threading their way through the heavy traffic near the Federal Building, they turned north and drove stop-and-go alongside a freeway still choked with traffic headed for the Valley.
With the Camaro following, the Buick turned right on Moraga Drive, then swept up the long, curving street until they reached a set of massive wrought-iron gates some twenty feet high. A uniformed security guard, a revolver in his polished leather holster, was visible inside the booth.
Jesse drove almost to the booth. Without stopping, he pulled the car into a U-turn. Majoy followed. At the bottom of the street, Steve told Jesse to turn left into the parking lot of the Chevron station next to a restaurant on the southeast corner of Sepulveda and Moraga. Jesse parked the Buick while Majoy got out of the Camaro, walked around, and eased into its passenger seat.
Jesse got out of the Buick and Steve handed him a walkie-talkie. He ran Jesse through the routine again: when he saw the beige Mercedes turn south on Sepulveda, he was to call Mike on the radio.
Steve slid behind the Camaro’s wheel. In his mirror he watched Jesse standing in the parking lot, the radio crammed into the pocket of his shorts, with only the plastic-coated antenna sticking out. It looked like a cellular telephone. Jesse looked like a bull kicked out of a china shop.

The scene of the crime - Brentwood Place, Los Angeles.

Praise for the Book
"Really interesting book. Hard for me to put down. Just when you think you have heard it all you READ something like this and realize you surely have not." ~ Judy L. Webster
"I loved this book. Could not put it down. So much deceit and dishonesty and greed that it was almost hard to believe sometimes. The authors did a masterful job of telling a very complicated story." ~ Bob Tobin
"Amazing what family members, who feel they are behind the eight ball will do for money. Also shows to what length adult children will go to 'free' themselves of what they consider an 'unfair' parent/s." ~ deedee
"I read this book when it first came out, stumbled across it and just re-read it. It's a marvelous, detailed and nuanced account of the murders of two decent, intelligent human beings by their slimeball kids. Marvin Wolf is a terrific writer: [...] A first rate journalist and author who never ceases to dazzle. Loved it as much the second time." ~ SeattleSal
"This book was one of the most interesting I have read in a long time. My daughter and I came to totally different conclusions regarding the family. She thought the murder was justified, I absolutely disagree. What do you think?" ~ Judi Hiscox

Brothers, Robert Homick, a Westside attorney, and Steven Homick, a one-time Los Angeles police officer, were arrested for being the alleged hit men.

About the Author
The son of a junk man and a mad housewife, Marvin J. Wolf worked as a dishwasher, sold encyclopedias door-to-door, taught hand-to-hand combat in the US Army Ranger School, served as a basic training drill instructor, and as an infantry squad leader - all before his 21st birthday.
In 1965 he reenlisted and maneuvered himself into a combat photographer's assignment. In Vietnam he was decorated with the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, and awarded a battlefield commission, one of only 60 men to be promoted to officer rank in the combat zone. Over the next eight years he served as a company commander, a senior staff officer, and as the Seventh Infantry Division Public Affairs Officer.
Following his discharge, Wolf spent the next decade as a photojournalist. After gaining sole custody of his teenage daughter, Wolf segued into writing, beginning with magazine work. His first book, The Japanese Conspiracy (Empire Books, New York, 1983), led to a career switch and more than a dozen more books, including collaborations with ABC Television founder Leonard H. Goldenson, Native American leader Russell Means, and former South Vietnamese prime minister General Nguyen Cao Ky. In 2001, Wolf took up screenwriting (Ladies Night, USA Network, 2005). In 2011 he wrote his first novel, For Whom The Shofar Blows.
He lives in Los Angeles with his now forty-something daughter and a snobbish terrier-chihuahua mix.

Also arrested were two alleged lookouts - a Reseda man, Anthony Majoy, and a Las Vegas man, Michael Dominguez.

Links