Blog Tour and Guest Post - Working it Out by Rachael Anderson

On Naming Characters

Of all the books I've written, Working it Out took me the longest to come up with names for the characters. I created a heroine who judges people based on the meaning of their names. Therefore, I needed the majority of my characters to have certain names that meant certain things. This feat turned out to be a lot more time consuming than I imagined it would. I spent hours and hours researching names, compiling lists, then dismissing some and waffling on others. When I finally stumbled across the various meanings of Seth's name, I knew I'd finally found the perfect fit for my hero. It actually made characterizing him easy and fun. Grace's name came next, followed by Lanna, Alec, and Cameron--characters whose names fit them perfectly. You'll have to read the book to find out why. :)

Rachael
www.rachaelreneeanderson.com

About the author: Rachael Anderson is the author of five novels (Working It Out, The Reluctant Bachelorette, Minor Adjustments, Luck of the Draw, and Divinely Designed) and two novellas (Twist of Fate, from the All I Want anthology and The Meltdown Match from The Timeless Romance Anthology: Summer Wedding Collection). She’s the mother of four and is pretty good at breaking up fights, or at least sending guilty parties to their rooms. She can’t sing, doesn’t dance, and despises tragedies. But she recently figured out how yeast works and can now make homemade bread, which she is really good at eating.

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Working it Out

by Rachael Anderson

A chance encounter . . . 

Grace Warren’s life is safe and predictable—exactly the way she likes it. But when she gets roped into going to an auction to help out a friend, everything changes. She meets Seth Tuttle—a guy who unexpectedly kisses her then disappears, leaving her flustered and upset. If she never sees him again, it will be too soon.

A chance for love . . . 

Weeks later, when Seth limps into Grace’s rehab clinic post surgery, she immediately recognizes him. Unfortunately, he’s every bit as frustrating and annoying as she remembered. Yet there’s something about him that makes her second-guess her carefully placed boundaries even though he’s everything she’s sure she doesn’t want in a man. But maybe Seth is exactly what Grace has needed all along—assuming she’s willing to risk safe and predictable for a chance at love.

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Cover Reveal: Speak Low by Melanie Harlow (Giveaway)

Speak Low
(Speak Easy #2)

by Melanie Harlow

Cover designed by Tom Barnes

Publication Date: Nov 24, 2013

Historical, New Adult, Romance

We always want what we can’t have.

Tiny O’Mara is tired of living in a world where men make all the rules. After bootlegging enough whiskey to free her father from the DiFiore crime family, twenty-year old Tiny is determined to gain her independence.

But it’s going to cost her.

Her alliance with sultry Enzo DiFiore is based more on their explosive chemistry than loyalty or trust. But she’s promised him some information that will help him take revenge on The River Gang, and when he offers her a job, an apartment, and the prospect of nights spent together where anything goes, she can’t refuse—which only puts her further in his debt.

She needs gorgeous childhood pal Joey Lupo to help her again—when they’re not at each other’s throats, they make a good team, and her attraction for him is becoming impossible to deny. But after she rejects his offer to leave town together, he’s tempted to let her fend for herself.

As Enzo’s need for possession and power escalate and her feelings for Joey deepen, Tiny realizes her mistakes. She just hopes she gets the chance to fix them before it’s too late.

Read the book that started it all -

Speak Easy

Currently only $.99 at amazon!

About the author:  Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her lipstick red, and her history with the naughty bits left in. SPEAK EASY was inspired by her cocktail-culture obsession, her affection for good gin, and the view from the end of her street. She lifts her glass to NA readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI.

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Cover Reveal: After the Fall by L.G. Castillo

After the Fall
(Broken Angel #2)

by L.G. Castillo

Cover designed by Mae I Design.

Publication Date: Sept 15, 2013

New Adult, Paranormal, Romance

There’s a Spanish proverb that says, “From the thorn and the pain, a flower is born.” Naomi Duran never really understood what that meant until she became an archangel.

Finally reunited with the love of her life, Naomi thought she had everlasting love and happiness in Heaven. Even with the rebellious Lash by her side, she learns that life as an archangel isn’t easy.

When secrets of the past are finally revealed, tempers flare, brother is pitted against brother, and Naomi and Lash face the greatest threat to their relationship: choosing among love, family, or duty.

In the end, can this family of broken angels forgive past mistakes, or will they carry the thorn in their hearts forever, ripping their family apart?

Get the first book!

Lash

About the author:  L.G. (Linda) Castillo wrote her first story when she was ten and has been writing ever since. She took a break from writing fiction and poetry to focus on obtaining her Ph.D. in counseling psychology. She is now a licensed psychologist and currently works as a professor at a Texas university. Although she has published her psychological research in several professional journals and books, her dream has always been to publish a novel. Lash is her debut novel and was written during the 2012 National Novel Writing Month event.

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Book Blitz Tour: After Alex Died by Dakota Madison

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After Alex Died

by Dakota Madison

Publication Date: July 2013

New Adult

“Don’t be someone who defines her life by someone else’s death.”

Dee Dee DeMarco’s brother, Alex, was funny, free-spirited and creative. He was also gay. Tormented by bullies, Alex killed himself on his 15th birthday.

Two years later, and now in college, Dee Dee believes getting a summer job working with a college-prep program for disadvantaged high school students is a stroke of luck, until she discovers that the guy assigned to co-lead her group is Cameron Connelly, a star basketball player and one of the bullies who tormented her brother to death. How can Dee Dee possibly spend the entire summer working so closely with one of the boys she blames for her brother’s death?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I think this is a little story with a lot of heart. I hope you think so, too!

We were told to meet at 9 a.m. and by that time it was just a few minutes after the hour, there were 10 of us assembled, five guys and five girls. I recognized two of the girls from my Shakespeare class. They were English majors like me but I didn’t know their names. They were a year ahead of me and were in a sorority. Sorority girls didn’t associate much with non-Greeks like me and especially non-Greeks who looked like me: hair dyed multiple colors, tattoos on both wrists and heavy dark eye makeup. My mom liked to say my drastic change in appearance my senior year of high school was about me putting up a wall not only to keep other people out but to keep my emotions in. She was probably right on both counts.
I scanned the rest of the group, which was a mass of unknown faces until I hit upon a face that was forever burned in my memory. Cameron Connelly. He was one of three people who I hoped to never see again for the rest of my time on Earth.
Cameron looked different than I remembered him. He was still tall and muscular, with messy blond hair and sea green eyes. But he looked older and harder than the carefree basketball player everyone in our high school adored.
I was overcome with a plethora of emotions: fear, dread, anger, hatred and every other negative emotion I had been harboring for the last two years. The feelings were so strong, I couldn’t breathe. I tried to relax but the harder I tried, the more tense I became and I nearly passed out. Luckily, Sofia grabbed my arm before I fell to the floor.
“Are you okay?” Concern covered her face.
I tried to speak but the words got stuck in my dry throat. I just shook my head.
“Are you hot? Do you need some fresh air?”
What I needed was to get away from Cameron Connelly—forever.
Before I had a chance to respond, Sofia led me toward the front doors and pulled me outside.
“Take a deep breath,” she ordered. I got the feeling she had younger siblings who she mothered. She had that way about her.
I inhaled a deep breath of humid New Jersey air. New Jersey wasn’t known for having the finest air quality and the summers could be hot and sticky. This summer was already proving to be no exception.
Sofia narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?” I felt like she could see right through me into the deepest recesses of my soul. She was the first person who had ever looked beyond my so-called daunting appearance and dark clothes (my cloak of gloom as my mother called it) to even truly see me at all.
“Nothing,” I replied even though I had the distinct feeling that Sofia wasn’t about to let it slide. I was right.
“Come on. Do I look stupid to you? I’m from Newark. I’ve not only been around the block a few times, I’ve been up and down it, too. Now, I’m going to ask one more time and this time you’re going to give me a real answer. Got it?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I don’t think you’re going to have any trouble handling the high school kids, that’s for sure.”
That got Sofia to smile. I already figured out that she didn’t smile much but when she did, it was genuine.
“Seriously, what’s got you so freaked out?” she asked, her tone softened.
“There’s a guy in the group, Cameron Connelly. Let’s just say we have a history. From high school. He’s not someone I ever wanted to see again.”
She nodded as if she understood but I was sure she didn’t. No one understood and that was part of the problem. The misery that shrouded me was far worse than she probably imagined.
“Well, let’s make sure he stays away from you then, okay?”
I nodded and gave Sofia a feeble attempt at a smile. I couldn’t remember what it was like to actually truly smile it had been so long since I’d done it.
“Let’s get back in there before they start without us,” Sofia offered.
I nodded and we both headed back into the crowded lobby.

About the author: Dakota Madison has been writing since she learned to read and fell in love with books. When she’s not at her computer creating spicy new romances, Dakota is traveling to exotic locales or spending time with her husband and their bloodhounds.

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Welcome to Last Chance by Cathleen Armstrong (Book Review)

Title: Welcome to Last Chance
Author: Cathleen Armstrong
Publisher: Revell Books

About the book: The red warning light on her car dashboard drove Lainie Davis to seek help in the tiny town of Last Chance, New Mexico. But as she encounters the people who make Last Chance their home, it’s her heart that is flashing bright red warning lights. These people are entirely too nice, too accommodating, and too interested in her personal life for Lainie’s comfort-especially since she’s on the run and hoping to slip away unnoticed.

Yet in spite of herself, Lainie finds that she is increasingly drawn in to the dramas of small town life. An old church lady who always has room for a stranger. A handsome bartender with a secret life. A single mom running her diner and worrying over her teenage son. Could Lainie actually make a life in this little hick town? Or will the past catch up to her even here in the middle of nowhere?

Cathleen Armstrong pens a debut novel filled with complex, lovable characters making their way through life and relationships the best they can. Her evocative descriptions, observational humor, and talent at rendering romantic scenes will earn her many fans.

 

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My thoughts: I really liked the way this book started out, with Lainie dragging into Last Chance in a car that dies in the first parking lot in town.  For the first few days, she doesn't know whether she is having good luck or bad luck with the things that are happening.  Before she can blink, though, she has a place to stay and a job - just no car. 

She has been on her own for so long that she doesn't recognize it when someone cares about her and is not just ordering her around.  She has had her fill of being ordered around, but because of situations in her past, can't quite feel comfortable anywhere.  She is afraid that her ex is going to come looking for her, and she can't let him find her.

I loved Lainie.  When she discovered that she was in a situation that she didn't like - rather than staying to try to change her boyfriend - she packed up and left.  Something I think not a lot of young girls would do.  Especially ones that didn't have anywhere else they could call home.  When she arrived in Last Chance, she was cautious, but she was not afraid of work.  She was a good person who had just not had a perfect life.

Like the people of Last Chance, this book was warm and welcoming and presented the gospel in a very laid back way.  For them it was just a fact of life - something they lived every day.  They did not need to rub your face in it.   Now don't get me wrong - Last Chance had some characters that weren't living the life they should, and even had some Christians whose heart was in the right place even if what came out of their mouths sometimes wasn't.

I thought it was a very strong debut novel and will happily read whatever Cathleen Armstrong comes out with next.

 

~I received a complimentary copy of Welcome to Last Chance from Revell Blog Tours in exchange for my unbiased review.~

 

About the author: Cathleen Armstrong lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, but her roots remain deep in New Mexico, where she grew up and where much of her family still lives. Her debut novel, Welcome to Last Chance, has already won the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award for Women's Fiction.

 

Happy Birthday D.T. Dyllin!

  

Title: Hidden Gates (P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy, Book One)
Author:  D.T. Dyllin

New Adult Paranormal Romance
299 pages

Synopsis: For P.J. Stone, being a “Seer” who has never seen anything is less than fun. And P.J. isn’t known for her patience.

To make matters worse, she must choose a suitable mate to continue the Seer bloodline. Duty always comes before her heart…at least that’s what her parents taught her. When she finds herself wanting someone who is considered off-limits, P.J. is forced to question everything she believes.

As if navigating her love life isn’t complicated enough, P.J. finally receives a vision—of a threat to her world that only she can perceive. But no one will believe a fledgling Seer’s warnings. With nowhere else to turn, she may decide to trust a stranger with her life, her world, and maybe even her heart.

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Title: Broken Gates (P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy, Book Two)

Author:  D.T. Dyllin

New Adult Paranormal Romance

241 pages

Synopsis: P.J. Stone is a Seer who saw too little, too late.

In the past, her biggest worries were boys and school—but war has a way of changing things. Now, the alien Riders are trying to overrun the world. As the last of their kind, P.J. and her friends must find a way to save humanity before there’s nothing left to save.

After choosing a mate, P.J. hoped she'd have time to enjoy her love life. But with everything changing so quickly and major secrets revealed, who knows what the future will bring?

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Title: Feeling Death (Death Trilogy, Book One)
Author:  D.T. Dyllin

Erotic Paranormal Romance
307 pages

Synopsis: Samantha Bevans is having the best sex of her life—but it's not with her husband. Fortunately for her marriage, the affair is all in her mind. Isn't it? As an empath, she senses other people's emotions. But her connection to the man with the the chiseled face and haunting eyes seems so real.

There's no time for fantasies with a serial killer loose in Pittsburgh. The killer is targeting dancers at a strip club where Samantha used to bartend, back when drugs were the only cure for the torment of her abilities. As a member of a special task force, Samantha uses her talents to sense the victims’ final thoughts. Just when she thought the case was complex enough, she discovers one of the victims was thinking about her fantasy man when she died.

Who can Samantha trust when she can’t trust her own mind? An empath feels the emotional environment around her…and Samantha is surrounded by death.

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About the Author:  Cynical-Optimist. Chocolate-holic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self-Imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Geek. Animal Lover. Writer…are just a few words to describe D.T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and two very spoiled GSDs.

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Cover Reveal: Immagica by K.A. Last (Amazon GC Giveaway)

Immagica

by K.A. Last

Cover designed by KILA Designs.

Publication Date: Nov, 2013

YA Fantasy / Adventure

Immagica…

Where anything is possible, but not always controllable.

Enter at your own risk.

The night before her fifteenth birthday, Rosaline Clayton receives an amulet from her deranged father. He tells her she must find the book, and begs her to save him. Rosaline is used to her father not making any sense, and she dismisses their conversation as another of his crazy rants.

Rosaline and her younger brother, Elliot, find the old, leather-bound book tucked away in their Nana’s attic, and it sucks them into its pages. They land in a magical world where anything is possible, but when Rosaline and Elliot are separated, the only thing Rosaline wants is to find her brother and go home.

The creatures of Immagica have other ideas. Rosaline befriends a black unicorn, two fairies, and a girl named Brynn, who are under threat from a menacing dragon. Rosaline discovers she is bound to Immagica in ways she doesn’t understand, and the fate of this magical world rests entirely on her shoulders.

The book flew open and a gust of wind whipped my curls around my face. The pages riffled back and forth before coming to a halt, open at the first page. This was getting a little weird. I was about to slam the book shut when words began to appear of their own volition, right before our eyes.

“Um, Elliot. Can you see that? Or am I as crazy as Dad?”

“I can see it,” he whispered.

Immagica, the place where anything is possible, but not always controllable.
Enter at your own risk.

“What a load of crap,” I said, picking the book up. The new line of text flickered gold and pulsed, on then off, then on again, like a flashing, neon sign. I gingerly picked up the corner of the page and peeked under it to the next, but it was blank.

“How do we enter?” Elliot asked, leaning into me and staring at the book.

“Why do you keep asking me all these questions? You’re here, you know as much as I do.”

“You’re older, and always acting so much smarter than me,” Elliot said. I poked my tongue out. “That’s real mature.” He rolled his eyes.

“Oh, so you’re Mr Maturity now you’re a teenager.”

“Sometimes I’m more mature than you!”

While we argued, we were oblivious to what was happening. The book riffled its pages again, and another gust of wind hit our faces. Before we knew what was happening, the golden glow exploded from the book and sucked us in. That’s the best way I can describe it. One minute we were in my room, surrounded by my grandmother’s elegant interior decorating, and the next we were enveloped with gold light.

At first I felt Elliot beside me, but then he was gone. The light was warm, like a soft, fuzzy blanket. Then the ground hit me in the face. It was hard and rough. The force of my landing knocked the wind out of me, and I tumbled over myself before coming to a halt on my back. Above me was an azure sky dotted with fluffy, marshmallow clouds. I turned my head and spotted the book lying closed on the ground a few metres away. I tried to move to retrieve it, but it took a few moments before I could roll onto my side and get to my knees.

When I finally managed to stand, I took in my surroundings with wide eyes. The sky may have been blue, but the ground was dirty charcoal. Lumps of gravel mixed with sand and dead grass. It stretched on, and on, nothing but barren wasteland no matter which way I turned. The only break in the landscape was where the horizon met the sky.

A lump of fear rose in my throat. Where was Elliot?

I didn’t know where I was, and I was completely alone.

About the author:  K. A. Last was born in Subiaco, Western Australia, and moved to Sydney with her parents and older brother when she was eight. Artistic and creative by nature, she studied Graphic Design and graduated with an Advanced Diploma. After marrying her high school sweetheart, she concentrated on her career before settling into family life. Blessed with a vivid imagination, she began writing to let off creative steam, and fell in love with it. She now resides in a peaceful, leafy suburb north of Sydney with her husband, their two children, and a rabbit named Twitch.


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Cover Reveal: That One Summer by C.J. Duggan (with giveaway!)

That One Summer

by C.J. Duggan 

Publication Date: 2014

Loving Chris Henderson would be wrong. Diabolically disastrous. I mean, what is there about him to love? He’s moody, bossy, brooding, a control freak, and that’s on a good day … but there was one achingly obvious fact that haunted my every thought, every minute of every day …

He sure could kiss.

As the countdown to the new millennium begins, there is one thing everyone agrees on: no one wants to be in Onslow for New Year’s Eve.

So that can only mean one thing: road trip!

No longer the mousey, invisible, shy girl from years ago, Tammy Maskala is finally making up for all those lost summers. A new year with new friends, which astoundingly includes the bossy boy behind the bar, Chris Henderson.

She likes her new friends (at least most of them), so why does she secretly feel so out of place?

After chickening out on the trip, a last-minute change of heart sees Tammy racing to the Onslow Hotel, fearing she’s missed her chance for a ride. The last thing she expected to meet was a less-than-happy Onslow Boy leaning against his black panel van.

Now the countdown begins to reach the others at Point Shank before the party is over and the new year has begun. Alone in a car with only the infuriating Chris Henderson, Tammy can’t help but feel this is a disastrous start to what could have been a great adventure. But when the awkward road trip takes an unexpected turn, Tammy soon discovers that the way her traitorous heart feels about Chris is the biggest disaster of all.

Fogged up windows, moonlight swimming, bad karaoke and unearthed secrets; after this one summer nothing will ever be the same again.

Purchase Links for U.S. for CJ Duggan books: 

 

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About the author:  
C.J Duggan is an Australian author who lives with her husband in a rural border town of New South Wales, Australia.

The Boys of Summer is Book One in her Mature Young Adult Romance Series.

For more on C.J and ‘The Summer Series’, visit www.cjdugganbooks.com
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Enter on the rafflecopter below to win a signed paperback of The Boys of Summer or An Endless Summer or a chance at one of six copies of either The Boys of Summer or An Endless Summer.  Giveaway is open Internationally. 

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