Book Blitz & Giveaway: The Magical Library [Charmed Love 04] by Aimee O’Brian!

Excerpt!

   “You got anything stronger than that froofy pink punch?” he asked her.
   She blinked at him through her lenses. Her mouth curved into a smile, and Derrick found himself smiling back, a genuine smile for the second time that day. What was it with the women in this town that caught him off guard and made him respond naturally instead of carefully like he usually did? One needed to be cautious. Except...he could almost get lost in those soft gray eyes. He shoved his shoulders back and cleared his throat.

   “I wish,” she said, “but the teetotalers would have a conniption.”

   He leaned forward and said in a low voice, “Is this a temperance community?”
   “I wouldn’t say that; however,”—she, too, leaned forward conspiratorially— “anything but tea, coffee, and pink lemonade at a quilt show would be frowned upon. Especially in the library.”
   “And you are...”

   She hesitated. “Well, until recently I was the head librarian, but I’m taking a break.”

   “And yet, here you are today.”

   “For the quilt show? Wouldn’t miss it. I helped set it up.”

   “I noticed the quilts are arranged according to the Dewey decimal system. Was that you?”

   She graced him with a bright, surprised smile. “You noticed that? Really? Even the other librarians didn’t pick up on it.”

   “I notice everything.” And he did. Especially with this woman: her sandy brown hair with blonde highlights, like she was kissed by sunshine. Her wide-set gray eyes were camouflaged by those giant frames, yet he couldn’t get enough. The color of her eyes was somewhere in between
a soft cashmere pullover and a sky during a hurricane. Comfort and turbulence all at once. And
what was he supposed to make of that? He took a step back.
   “I like order,” she told him.
   Derrick stepped forward again.

In the small town of Hazard, the past never stays buried—and love may be the most powerful magic of all.

Whitney Hopewell, Hazard’s newly elected mayor and former librarian, is determined to protect the town she loves. When a smooth Boston developer offers a sleek solution to Hazard’s affordable housing crisis, she’s cautiously hopeful. Derrick Cross is charming, intelligent, and undeniably intriguing. Convincing the local innkeeper to rent him a room feels practical. Helping him with his historical research feels personal.

But Derrick hasn’t come to Hazard to help. He’s returned to settle a centuries-old score. His family’s downfall is tied to the town’s founding, and transforming Hazard’s quaint charm into soulless urban sprawl is his long-planned revenge. Falling for the woman fighting to save it threatens everything.

As Whitney and Derrick grow closer, sensing a deep connection neither can explain, secrets surface. A hidden tunnel, a looming hurricane, and a magical heritage quilt that reveals dreams of true love force them to confront history, heartbreak, and desire.

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Author bio:

Having lived in both California and Texas, award-winning author Aimee O’Brian now resides in the beautiful wine country where she writes dark, sexy, funny romance. With her three children grown and experiencing their own adventures, she and her husband are free to explore the world. When she’s not reading, writing, or planting even more flowers in her garden, she can be found stomping through ancient ruins and getting lost in museums.

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The Magical Library Blitz

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Battle Beyond the Veil by Cassie Sanchez!

The Celestial War shattered the Heavens; after millennia, the battle still rages.

On the most important day of Zahra’s career at the Gallery of Time Museum, everything unravels. A mysterious package arrives from her estranged father, and the Atar’zul, a relic that could secure her promotion goes missing. While betrayal festers within the museum, a long lost love returns, throwing Zahra’s world into chaos.

Kyden, a warrior angel and demon slayer, has guarded the spiritual realm for centuries. When a famous archaeologist and forbidden artifact vanish, Kyden is forced to protect a human, a job he vowed long ago to never do again.

Together, Zahra and Kyden must face rising demon threats and the cursed magic of the Atar’zul. As darkness closes in, they join forces to defend both realms and find that ending the battle beans trusting each other. Sacrifices must be made—the cost of which might be their very souls.

Welcome to the battle for humanity’s future—a story of loyalty, temptation, and the fragile line between light and shadow.

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Author bio:

Cassie Sanchez is the award-winning author behind the Darkness trilogy—a whirlwind of fast-paced fantasy romance where danger dances with desire and magic always has a price. Based in the enchanting Southwest, she lives with her husband and two crazy labs named Bullet and Scout. When she’s not writing happily-ever-afters, she can be found wielding a Pickleball paddle or cuddling with her nogs for an afternoon nap.

At the heart of Cassie’s stories are characters who stumble, fall, and rise again—wrestling with forgiveness and searching for redemption. Step into her world, where every story casts a spell and love conquers all, even the shadows.

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Book Blitz & Giveaway: Nocturne by Tricia D. Wagner!

Excerpt!

   Livi stood before the tavern’s bleak threshold, its heavy door cobbled of wrecked ships.

   She peered through its ragged window, quieting the wiser part of her, an inner voice calling for her to turn back. And truly, she was stunned that she’d mustered the daring to try this.

   There were dozens of men here—sailors all brooding over their flagons, many looking to be harboring grudges.

   The tavern’s splintery walls were studded with trophies—toothy payaras, dry in their death throes, tacked beneath golden portraits of infamous Korps Mariner ships and their dread captains.

   The men frequenting this sand-dusted, fish-pongy tavern—The Orphic, were the sun-beaten sailors and damaged soldiers of Merritaine, mercenaries and relieved fighters who’d reached the shore of old age still breathing.

   No one dared step a toe in The Orphic unless he bore epic tales—bloody acts of acclaim on the baleful blue seas.

   Many here had killed. Some for honorable causes in noble wars, yes. But they’d killed.

   For all their savagery, though, they were brave.

   Livi had heard enough stories to understand them as uniformly dauntless and skilled. If anyone could help her skip Merritaine’s coast and reach Nocturne, he’d be drinking here.

   Through the brume of pipe smoke, she measured each face for hints of affability. Or at least for traces of good humor—signs that someone might consider her offer. If she could just single out one sailor more approachable than not, perhaps she could move to him unnoticed.

   But that wouldn’t happen. Women scarcely set foot here, and sixteen-year-old girls certainly didn’t.

   A few of the sailors came across as jovial—but even they harbored an undercurrent of trouble in their looks, their ease striking like a gusty southerly bathing the seaside, forecasting a typhoon’s assault.

   The afternoon seemed all at once to grow late, a shaft of misted sunlight sluicing through the windows and casting the place in watery relief.

   In fixing on that panorama of ocean, Livi could almost see Nocturne’s peaks in the deep west, its moonstone shores marbled with the shadowy ash given by its volcanic chain.

   Those heights, she had to reach. For it was said that Nocturne’s high places were hived with sea caves—chambers shining with waters rumored to have healing properties.

   Some believed those springs could stave off even death.

   Livi eased from her jacket a small jar of pearls, each perfect, as plump as a blueberry—these a mere sampling of the trove she’d collected. They ought to be more than enough to buy passage to Nocturne from someone here bearing the skill, and the gall, and the ship, and the time to set sail for the Isles, along with some assurance that he could ferry her through storms, over waters where lurked sharks and killer whales and squids that tore up boats, and finally beyond the dread Maelstroms.

   Livi had imagined this moment many times—making her bold approach in The Orphic, striking a deal. She’d imagined that arriving at this brink would feel like the onset of her escape.

   But in finally standing here, readying to approach men alleged to be the most barbarous in Merritaine, the idea seemed beyond reckless.

   Célian, her best friend—maybe more—would be sick at the thought of her here. And truly, in darkening this threshold, she felt she was skimming the rim of the Maelstroms, those great whirlpools unceasing in their churning, twisting what strayed near straight down in a tempest, claiming ships and seafarers alike as a part of themselves.

   The bright Merrow Ocean glinting in, though, delivered some steadfastness. For at the sight of its rolling, Livi could gather a sense of what it might feel like, teaming with someone here, cruising on his scabrous ship to the treacherous west.

   A man seated at the tavern’s back corner stood out a touch.

   He looked a decade younger than the rest, and he had all his limbs, which was saying something. He seemed not resentful, or affable, or angry—just somber. His solemnity made it clear that he wanted to be left to himself.

   But it also lent an impression of patience. Maybe he’d listen.

   She edged open the tavern’s door and crept in. She eased behind a column in the entryway and held still.

   She’d have to get to the somber man quick. If she drew too much attention, the barkeep—a tall man, his eyes sharp to check all the action, his manner busy and swift with his bottles—would cast her out before she could lay down one word of her offer.

   Or worse—he’d let the men handle the disruption.

   Livi stepped from the shade, into the amber light of the tavern.

In NOCTURNE, sixteen-year-old Livi learns the truth of who she is—a Siren, her people known only to legends. She must learn to master her powers of influence, strength, and destruction to stop a warmongering Admiral from drafting her best friends, capturing and killing her people, and decimating her homeland of Nocturne.

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Author bio:

As a young reader, writers were like gods and goddesses to now author Tricia D. Wagner. She never could have imagined weaving tales like her favorite storytellers, until a fateful April dinner conversation with her husband about a lecture he attended got her mind whirling. By the end of that summer, she’d written 400,000 words: a speculative fiction trilogy. Wagner felt as if she’d emerged from a cocoon as some new sort of creature. She was hooked.

It was important to Tricia to sharpen her skills, and she immersed herself in workshops, guides, and writing communities, learning from editors how to hone her craft. She did this for years, and the result is her newly released novella The Strider and the Regulus, two independently published novelettes, four soon-to-be published novellas, and five as yet unpublished novels. She found writing to be a method for becoming the person she felt she was born to be. Wagner finds that writing inspires her to be a better person, truer to herself.

The ideas and substance of Tricia’s writing comes from a very deep place that is strongly stimulated by setting. Often, when she has completed a story, she feels as if she’s been to her story world, whether it’s on the map or not. She likes to believe all the places she writes about exist somewhere, somehow.

In writing her stories, Wagner was surprised and delighted to discover how real the characters become to an author; that for many writers, their characters end up as their most treasured friends. She loves to delve into them to mine their natures, secrets, and desires—to tell their stories with the legitimacy they deserve. In studying her characters, she finds she has the opportunity to shape herself, inching closer to the person she wants to become.

Wagner believes revision is magical in its power to make a good book great, and early drafts are only the beginning of a story’s journey. Any idea can wind up a good story, but with reflection and time and improvement, it can become art. Once Wagner completes a revision project, it feels miraculous how many fresh approaches have manifested and how much truer the story feels.

Wagner hopes her readers feel enchanted when they read her stories; that after completing one, it seems they’re drifting out from under a spell. This is exactly how she feels when she finishes writing a story. She hopes to that her writing might expand their minds, spirits, and worlds a bit, and she hope they fall in love with her characters and are moved by her artistry of language.

When she isn’t writing poignant works of literary fiction, Wagner is a Director of Adult Education – ESL Programs at a community college, a job and staff that she loves. In her spare time she enjoys refining her writing craft to discover new angles and landscapes that might enrich her writing palette. One such example is a recent course she took in learning to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, something that’s sure to end up in a story at some point. Wagner lives in Rockford, Illinois, with her husband and three darling cats.

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Nocturne Blitz

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Royal Mayhem by Samantha Jayne Grubey!

Excerpt!

   I walked into the store room to grab the cleaning trolley wheeling it in, I got the dustpan and brush cleaning up the spray of shattered glass before depositing it into the black bag attached to the trolley. I swept up the remaining glass before grabbing the mop and bucket off the trolley and began to mop.

   Something crashed into me pushing me forward into the mop bucket and falling to the ground. I felt something heavy land on top of me. “Ow!” I snapped. I felt the heavy presence lift off me and turned to see a man wiping himself down.

   “You idiot!”

   “Alexander!” I heard someone shout.

   “Excuse me!” I stood up ignoring the soaking wet apron I was now wearing spinning around to glare at the man. “You ran into me, maybe you should watch where you’re going and use your walking feet inside like a normal person.”

   Anger flashed through his brown eyes as he clenched his fist. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

   I stayed silent trying to keep my temper in check. I wasn’t sure how Daisy would feel with me yelling back at a customer. I clenched my hand into a fist using my nails to keep me centred.

   “Are you deaf? I’m talking to you.” His nostrils flared. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

   I stopped closer to him. “Did I not make it clear?” I raised an eyebrow. “You.”

   “Do you have any idea who you are talking to you stupid—”

   “Alexander,” a voice cut through. “Don’t be rude. Apologise.”

   “Why? She’s just a cleaner.”

   “Okay, number one, I am not a cleaner. I am actually a waitress where cleaning is a part of my job. Number two, even if I was, you don’t get to look down at me like shit on the floor.”

   He stared at me, his mouth falling open as he stepped back.

   “Now, if you don’t mind, could you please leave this area, so I can mop the floor to stop it from being a hazard?”

   “Alexander, go to the car,” the other man said.

   I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, a grown man having to be told what to do.

   “Jones—”

   “Now Alexander, you can not be late for this meeting.” Alexander rolled his eyes but followed this Jones man's direction. “I am truly sorry for his behaviour.”

   I shrugged picking the mop and bucket up and began to mop the water up. I was just glad I hadn’t filled the bucket all the way up.

   “What’s your name?”

   “Melinda Brown. Why?”

   “Very nice to meet you, Miss Brown, again I apologise for his behaviour,” the man said. I watched as he walked out the door and I couldn’t help but frown, what interesting people. At least one of them was nice.

   I focused on mopping all the water back up before putting it away in the store room. I walked into the kitchen peeling the wet apron off. “I fucking hate people!”

   “Girl,” Dave said, appearing from behind the cooker. “Do you have any idea who you just yelled at?”

   “Some arrogant dickhead,” I said, clenching my fist slightly.

   “He’s the—”

   “Nope,” I cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to think about that stupid man for a second more.”

   Dave just stared at me shaking his head. “Alright, your next order is up.”

Part one of a duet.

Melinda Brown doesn’t want much in life, graduate university and survive.

Prince Alexander has everything, surrounded be riches and spoilt to the core. Everything he’s ever wanted has been at the tip of his finger due to his prestigious status as future King of England.

Despite coming from two different worlds, they share the same university. One day everything changes when the two crash into each other’s lives, literally.

As they both enter each other’s worlds, they’re forced to make compromises for the sake of their growing attraction.

Will Melinda and Alexander be able to win people with their love, especially when it becomes clear that they both hide secrets? Or will Prince Alexander by denied for the first time by the first woman that he truly wants? Not everything is as it seems in Royal Mayhem.

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Author bio:

Samantha Jayne Grubey is an author of new adult romance.

When she's not writing or reading, she will be playing sims or doing some diamond art and if she isn't doing any of that she could be pole dancing or most likely working.

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Royal Mayhem Blitz

Release Day Blitz & Giveaway: Death and Life in the City of Dreams by Nicholas Deitch!

Jaded city planner Townsend Meadows looks out across Evermore Valley with the ghost of his dead friend by his side. “Do you ever wonder,” Fen asks, “what this city will look like five hundred years from now?”

Their city is teetering on the brink of collapse, and the mayor’s answer is a gleaming new auto mall at the valley’s edge. For Townsend, it’s the death of everything a city should be. Struggling to regain his passion and forced to choose between compliance and conviction, he must risk his career to fight for a more hopeful and verdant future.

From an architect’s vision at the dawn of the twentieth century, to a rancher’s dynasty scarred by violence and greed, to a city founder’s hidden message of hope, this story about the rise, fall, and reawakening of an American city reaches far beyond the present. A timely, sweeping novel of memory, corruption, and resilience, Death and Life in the City of Dreams asks, “What legacy will we choose to leave for our children?”

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Nicholas Deitch is a writer, architect, and advocate for social justice whose fiction explores the intersection of cities, history, and human resilience. His passion for storytelling began when a colleague recognized the emotional depth of his nonfiction work. Since then, he has honed his craft, publishing short stories in Litro Magazine, Club Plum, and Santa Barbara Literary Journal. His short story “Grace Eternal” won Best Fiction at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (2019).

Death and Life in the City of Dreams, his debut novel, is deeply influenced by his experiences in nonprofit leadership and the design of inclusive communities and urban places.

Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Ventura, California, with his wife and creative partner Diana.

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Book Blitz & Giveaway: Playtime's Over [Neighbor from Hell 16] by R.L. Mathewson!

Six years is a long time to wait for revenge…

 

From New York Times Bestselling Author R.L. Mathewson comes the next novel in the Neighbor from Hell series, filled with revenge, questionable choices, and a Bradford determined to make the one woman that he couldn’t live without fall in love with him.

Once upon a time, Kristen Haven was his best friend, his entire world, and the one woman Garrett Bradford couldn’t stop thinking about, but that all changed six years ago when a simple misunderstanding ruined everything, and now…

Now, he was really hoping that she was willing to overlook the fact that he’d made her life a living hell for the past six years.

It was never going to happen.

Not after he’d told her to go to hell, and definitely not after he sent clowns to frolic in her front yard. Now that he knew the truth, Kristen was determined to forget about him and move on with her life, but there was just one problem with that plan…

She needed him.

Which meant that she had no choice but to give in to his demands, remind herself that she needed him whenever the urge to beat the hell out of him with whatever was within reach hit, and pretend that she wasn’t falling in love with the one man that she could never forgive.

A romantic comedy about second chances, revenge, questionable life choices, and one man determined to win back the only woman he’s ever loved…whether she likes it or not.

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Author bio:

New York Times Bestselling author, R.L. Mathewson was born in Massachusetts. She’s known for her humor, quick wit and ability to write relatable characters. She currently has several paranormal and contemporary romance series published including the Neighbor from Hell series.

Growing up, R.L. Mathewson was a painfully shy bookworm. After high school she attended college, worked as a bellhop, fast food cook, and a museum worker until she decided to take an EMT course. Working as an EMT helped her get over her shyness as well as left her with some fond memories and some rather disturbing ones that from time to time show up in one of her books.

Today, R.L. Mathewson is the single mother of two children that keep her on her toes. She has a bit of a romance novel addiction as well as a major hot chocolate addiction and on a perfect day, she combines the two.

If you’d like more information about this series or any other series by R.L. Mathewson, please visit www.Rlmathewson.com

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There is a giveaway to win a signed copy of Playtime’s Over, a Bradford Constructions tee-shirt and a $50 Amazon gift card.

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Release Day Blitz & Giveaway: Cece in Wonder Land by Bonnie S. Priever!

Sometimes wonder finds you when you least expect it.

Cece Belle is a high-functioning neurodivergent. She’s also a big believer in destiny, but when her soulmate Robby dumps her mid-flight to Israel, she instantly regrets ever telling him she’s on the spectrum.

Not one to dwell in misery, Cece sips some chamomile hibiscus tea to set herself straight. And with meditation and spirituality on her side, she looks to what’s next. Yet another blow hits when she is kicked out of her rabbinical studies program for “strange behavior.”

Then, she meets Joel. With his quirky demeanor and ability to say all the right things, he gives Cece the desire to begin a new relationship. There’s only one main obstacle: Cece loves living in Los Angeles, and Joel is a diehard New Yorker.

She marries him anyway, despite misgivings that extend beyond their geography. After all, this is her carefully drawn plan—marriage, then kids, then happily ever after. Sometimes though, the best-laid plans are better left in dreamland where they can’t go awry.

Cece in Wonder Land is a twisty journey down a rabbit hole of unexpected anxieties, disappointments, and more questions than answers. But where there is hope, there is life, and maybe Cece can hang on for the next bit of wonder bound to come her way.

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Author bio:

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bonnie S. Priever majored in communications studies at UCLA before moving to Philadelphia. There, she attended the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which prepared her for an assistant directorship at the Israel Levin Senior Adult Center in Venice, California.

As a way to process emotions and stay connected to her spirituality, Bonnie started writing about her experiences. In 2023, Newsweek published her personal essay about the challenges of aging. Currently, she combines her passion for writing and her love for live theater as a reviewer for CurtainUp, an online theater magazine.

Bonnie loves to travel but always looks forward to coming home to LA. She has one grown son and a backlog of great ideas. Based on a true story, Cece in Wonder Land is her first novel.

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