Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Meet Your Baker Release Day Event & Giveaway!



Welcome to Ashland, Oregon, home of the world-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the setting for Ellie Alexander’s debut mystery MEET YOUR BAKER.

MEET YOUR BAKER is a culinary mystery centered in the fictional bakeshop, Torte, with a mother/daughter pastry duo. It includes original handcrafted recipes. Meet Ashland!


In Ashland you’ll find an eclectic community of artists, outdoor adventure seekers, college students, farmers, retirees and a constant stream of tourists. At nearly 2,000 feet in elevation, its Mediterranean summers make it the perfect spot to watch Shakespeare under the stars or hike one of the surrounding peaks. In the winter, Ashland becomes home to ski enthusiasts with nearby Mt. Ashland, and plenty of backcountry trails. ​

You’ll feel like you’ve stepped into a charming English village with Ashland’s Shakespeare-inspired pubs, restaurants and shops.



Meander through Lithia Park where you’ll pass ancient trees, grassy patches and picnic benches, and wild deer. Be sure to get a glimpse of the towering Oregon Shakespeare Festival buildings, and stop to drink from Lithia’s mineral spring fountains.


Take Shakespeare’s stairs to “the bricks” where theater lovers and actors gather before performances.


Finally, end your day with a sweet treat at one of Ashland’s many divine bakeshops.


Be sure to check out the blog tour that is filled with reviews, interviews and guest posts by the author! The tour starts January 5th and runs through the 16th. Check out the schedule!

About MEET YOUR BAKER:

Welcome to Torte—a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the treats are so good that, sometimes, it’s criminal…

After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte’s customers turns up dead, there’s much ado about murder…



"Sure to satisfy both dedicated foodies and ardent mystery lovers alike."

―Jessie Crockett, author of Drizzled with Death

The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival’s newest board member. A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her…but still. The silver lining? Jules’s high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case. His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can’t help but want to have her cake and eat it too. But will she have her just desserts? Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all…

"Alexander weaves a tasty tale of deceit, family ties, delicious pastries, and murder.” ―Edith Maxwell, author of A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die


About the Author:
Ellie Alexander is a Pacific Northwest native who spends ample time testing pastry recipes in her home kitchen or at one of the many famed coffeehouses nearby. When she’s not coated in flour, you’ll find her outside exploring hiking trails and trying to burn off calories consumed in the name of research. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter to learn more.

Links: 
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Giveaway:
Paperback copy of Meet Your Baker, Chai Tea, designer baking liners and a Starbucks gift card.
Open to US addresses only.
Ends 1/6/15

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.

"Small changes can make big differences in obesity crisis"

Poor Oral Health Among Natives Linked To Commercial Tobacco!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Cheerful Givers Birthday Club!

What will you be most proud of at the end of this year?

How about adding to your list that you allowed one less fortunate parent to give their child a birthday gift? Donate $10 (or more) at www.cheerfulgivers.org/give






Jaden By Tijan Release Day Blitz December 30th







         



 SYNOPSIS:




         Website ~ Facebook ~ TSU ~ Amazon ~ Twitter      Being framed for murder sucks. Being framed for the murder of your old friend-turned-enemy-turned-maybe-friend-again sucks even worse. The old Sheldon would’ve raised hell, but no, I’ve been nice. I’ve been quiet. I’ve not said a word while the headlines rip me to shreds, but now? All bets are off. I’m going to find out who did this to me and I’m going to make them pay. I don’t care who will get hurt in the process. 





 
EXCERPT




 Everything was covered with trees and forest, but then we got a view of a mansion. It looked like a castle, and my eyes couldn’t help but go wide. Whose was this? And then the front door opened, and I jerked forward in the seat. My seatbelt tightened and I was shoved back, but I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t close my mouth. Everything stopped in that moment. When we slid to a stop and the lawyers got out of the car, I was slower. My body had trouble moving and my legs were stiff. My arms shook and my heart raced as I pulled myself up outside the car. I had to hold onto it or I would’ve fallen. I heard my knees knocking against each other. I couldn’t feel them, but I heard them. “Hello, Sheldon.” The man before me was in his forties. He was dressed in a black business suit, which fit him like a glove, and he gazed back at me. He waited for my reaction. There were no words. “Dad?”  






 Where To Buy:

 
 Amazon US ~ Barnes & Noble ~ iTunes ~ Kobo
Other books in this series:
Jaded ~ Amazon US
Still Jaded ~ Amazon US



AUTHOR BIO 




Hello~ (waves) I didn't begin writing until after undergraduate college. There'd been storylines and characters in my head all my life, but it came to a boiling point one day and I HAD to get them out of me. So the computer was booted up and I FINALLY felt it click. Writing is what I needed to do. After that, I had to teach myself how to write. I can't blame my teachers for not teaching me all those years in school. It was my fault. I was one of the students that was wishing I was anywhere but at school! So after that day, it took me lots of work until I was able to put together something that resembled a novel. I'm hoping I got it right since someone must be reading this profile! And I hope you keep enjoying my future stories. 



 Website ~ Facebook ~ TSU ~ Amazon ~ Twitter

Balbao Baby Shopping Cart Cover Giveaway!


BalBao Baby Shopping Cart Cover Giveaway Hosted by Stylish Momme Co-hosted by: The Minister's Wife Stamps & Saves Sponsored by BalBoa Baby

"A Legacy of Design Excellence" BalBoa Baby® is the result of a collaboration between Shirley Pepeys (the founder of Noel Joanna Inc.), her son, Noel Pepys, and Dr. William Sears. BalBoa Baby® creates unique, fashionable, products using "luxurious fabrics and distinctive prints." BalBoa Baby® products are innovative, fashionable and functional; they're always looking to make "parent's lives easier, their babies happier, and to give them both opportunities to bond and experience life together. Cuddle your baby."
If you'd like to read a review of BalBoa Baby's shopping cart cover, head on over to read Stylish Momme's review.
Feel free to add your own text here or no-index.
Enter below using the Giveaway Tools to enter for your chance to win a shopping cart cover from BalBoa Baby!
Terms & Disclosures
  • This giveaway will run from December 30th, 2014 at 1AM CST through January 13th, 2015 at 11:59PM CST. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents, aged 18 and up.
  • The winner will be notified by e-mail and will have 48 hours to claim their prize or a new winner will be drawn. The winner will be announced within 24 hours on Stylish Momme's facebook page after the winner has claimed their prize.
  • This giveaway is not associated with Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media.
  • All participating bloggers are not responsible for prize fulfillment. All participating bloggers were not compensated - other than the host, who received a shopping cart cover to facilitate a review.
  • All entries are optional.
  • Void where prohibited by law.

Forever Found A Neverland Lost Novella Release Day Launch December 30th




It's release day for Nazarea Andrews' Forever Found!! I am so excited for this novella, a sequel to Girl Lost. For the first time, Nazarea is telling Peter Pan's story from Peter's eyes. Be sure to read all the way down for the excerpt she's sharing, as well as her fantastic giveaway!


 Forever Found Synopsis:
Losing Gwen was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to survive. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love her.

But finding her was never about that. And now that I have found her–now that she knows the truth about me and the Island, I have to trust her to believe. Because her leaving me didn’t just destroy me–its killing Neverland.

I need her to love me. But we all need her to believe again.

Peter Pan has grown up and found the girl who left–but the stakes are higher than ever in this romantic conclusion to the story begun in Girl Lost.








Girl Lost Synopsis:


Northern was supposed to be a fresh start—a place where people didn’t know who I was or how I had spent years in and out of mental institutes. People didn't know about my parents death or the island no one heard of. But when Peter sits next to me in lit class, I can’t stop the memories, and I don’t want to. He looks too much like the boy from the island, and despite my best intentions, coaxes my secrets from me.

He’s gorgeous, irresistible, a little mad, and completely lost—we are a pair of broken cogs in a world neither of us truly fits into. He is somehow gentle and fierce, heartbreaking in his devotion and savage in his defense.

When Belle, his best friend, shows up, pale and lovely and sick, Peter pulls away from me, a startling withdrawal. It’s a relationship that scares and confuses me. She is at times warm and friendly, and other times is violent and unpredictable.

Peter says that he wants me, but refuses to let himself get close. And there are secrets, surrounding both of us, that border on nightmares. As the memories close in, as Belle gets sicker and more violent, I’m torn between what is true and what I believe, and what this magical boy knows about my mysterious past.








 
EXCERPT


 
“You ran away.”
She gives an unladylike snort. “You decided you were a delusion of my past, and then you expected me to sit there and listen to your insane ramblings. Thanks, but no. I can’t do that. I’ve had enough crazy for one life.” She bites her lip, and then blurts, “You stole my file, didn’t you? That’s how you know about the Boy.”
“Do you remember the firefly meadow?”
She goes still, and I smile, gently. “You do.”
“That wasn’t real,” she whispers, and I feel the shudder.
“We’d hide there, from the lost boys. And you’d fall asleep telling me your happy thoughts, and wake up to a galaxy of fireflies, and we’d chase them until you made yourself sick, laughing. And then I’d hold you and we’d stare at the stars, and you always said they were different. It smelled like jasmine and honey-“
“And wild woods and freedom,” she whispers, her blue eyes impossibly wide in her pretty face. I take a tentative step toward her, and touch her fingers.
Why are your stars different?
“It wasn’t a delusion, Gwendy. You know it wasn’t. Trust yourself.”
She shudders. “Can’t. My mind lies. It wasn’t—“
“Gwendy,” I say, desperately. Her eyes are filling with tears and I can feel the disbelief, the way it will tear apart the world I’ve known, and the girl I’ve loved, and I can’t. I move without thinking, catch her head and bring her lips to mine.








Buy Links:


Forever Found Barnes and Nobles: pending


















Nazarea Andrews is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. She loves chocolate and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids. She is the author of the University of Branton series, Neverland Found series, and Edge of the Falls.
She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, and overgrown dog. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
















Blogs Taking Part in the Release Day Launch
Bookworm Misfit
Bookworm Misfit

Enter Nazarea's giveaway!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Day Blast of Amber Hart's After Us December 30th

afterus-release

Amber Hart's AFTER US is available today, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Be sure to grab it today - and get ready to be hooked!

afterus



 About AFTER US:  "Beautiful, lyrical writing and a dangerously suspenseful plot. . .an unforgettable novel that readers will love." --Lucy Connors, author of The Lonesome Young
Sometimes secrets kill. Maybe slowly, maybe painfully. Maybe all at once.
Melissa smiles. She flirts. She jokes. But she never shows her scars. Eight months after tragedy ripped her from her closest friend, Melissa is broken. Inside her grows a tumor, fed by grief, rage, and the painful memory of a single forbidden kiss.
Javier has scars of his own: a bullet wound, and the memory of a cousin shot in the heart. Life in the States was supposed to be a new beginning, but a boy obsessed by vengeance has no time for the American dream. To honor his familia, Javier joins the gang who set up his cousin's murder. The entrance price is blood. Death is the only escape.
These two broken souls could make each other whole again--or be shattered forever.
Our time will come. And we'll be ready.
Add it to Goodreads here!









About Amber Hart

Amber Hart grew up in Orlando, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia. She now resides on the Florida coastline with family. When unable to find a book, she can be found writing, daydreaming, or with her toes in the sand. She's the author of BEFORE YOU, AFTER US, UNTIL YOU FIND ME, and sequel to UNTIL YOU FIND ME (untitled as of yet). Represented by Beth Miller of Writers House. 







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Monday, December 29, 2014

Cherry Blossom Blitz December 29th & Giveaway!


Cherry Blossom 


Vampire Cherry



Book II 


Sotia Lazu 

Genre: Erotic Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Acelette Press

Date of Publication: 18 December 2014 
ISBN: 978-0692291986
ASIN: B00OS4WZ7U

Number of Pages: 228
Word Count: 59,120
Cover Artist: Sotia Lazu
Book Description:






With her murderous maker still on the run, Cherry has enough on her mind even before her newly turned boyfriend, Alex, demands they meet each other's parents. Constantine, her ex and now member of the vampire council, is suspiciously quick to allow this breach of vampire law. It soon becomes clear there's a lot Cherry doesn't know about her family's past.


And it's threatening her present and her future.


Alex is changing, Ádísa is dead but not as gone as she should be, and feelings forced aside are reconsidered. Back in her hometown, and faced with an overabundance of new information, Cherry is determined to fight for herself, her family, and her man.


That's when her world is turned upside down.


Again.









EXCERPT


“There has been a possible sighting of Willoughby.” Constantine motioned at Liza, and she hurried to refill his teacup.
Gag.
“I can’t say more at this time, but you should be getting ready for a trip at short notice,” he said.
Alex nodded, unperturbed as always by Constantine’s exaggerated air of mystery.
I wasn’t that big a person. “You got us out of bed to tell us someone’s seen the bad guy, but not who or where? What’s next?” I deepened my voice to a basso. “It will rain one day in the near or distant future.” In my normal pitch, I asked, “Was that doomsday-worthy enough for you?”
“Cherry, this is all I can tell you right now. You have to trust me. What matters is we may have a clue as to his surroundings, if not his intentions.”
“A clue you won’t share with the class.”
“I’m sure he’ll tell us more when he knows more.” Alex placed one hand over mine, which I’d apparently fisted without realizing it. His effort at soothing me had the opposite result.
“He knows more now.” I locked my gaze on Constantine’s. “Don’t you?”
Constantine shook his head and smiled ruefully. “When did you become so cynical?”
I scrunched my face in mock concentration, then widened my eyes. “I know! Must have been about the same time I found out you’d been lying to me for years, and our entire relationship was a sham. Yup, that was the exact moment.”
His eyes were a stormy midnight blue that usually meant anger or extreme pain. Yes, the man came with preinstalled mood-rings on his face.
I wasn’t being fair. His maker had appointed him my sponsor. She wanted me to fall for him, and it hadn’t taken long for that to happen. But at the time, Constantine didn’t know Ádísa had ordered my turning. And contrary to her wishes, he’d really loved me in return. Just weeks ago, he insisted he still did.
Liza walked up behind Constantine, and laid both hands on his shoulders. Until that moment, I’d only thought of her as Head Concubine. I’d assumed all they shared was sex and blood. Apparently, I’d been at least partially wrong there.
How well she knew him astounded me. Even though Constantine’s posture didn’t change, Liza noticed the subtle increase of tension in his body, just like I did. Thing was, I couldn’t tell if Constantine’s discomfort was out of guilt over the lies he’d told me in the past—for which he’d atoned by killing his own maker—or because he really knew more about Willoughby than he let on.
I didn’t want it to be the latter. Not when he’d been regaining my trust. My stomach clenched at the possibility. Instead of asking him, I said, “Fine, be mysterious. But while we’re here, can you remind Alex we’re not supposed to keep in touch with our families?” Might as well get one problem out of the way.
The tiny lines of tension around Constantine’s eyes smoothed out, and his jaw relaxed. Was it me, or did my ex seem relieved by my change of subject?
Before Constantine could speak, Alex piped in. “I want Cherry and me to meet each other’s folks. I know it’s not something vampires do, but I’m still alive as far as my mother knows, and I don’t see how Cherry’s family would be anything but ecstatic to see her again. She was never declared dead, just missing, so she can tell them she was off finding herself or something.”
I didn’t expect the matter-of-fact way he’d presented his case to do him any good. What he was asking went against council policy. No way would Constantine condone it.
Constantine smiled, his irises now faded to their normal light blue. “We have been doing things our own way for a while now.” He shrugged, apparently oblivious to how my mouth gaped at his response. “I don’t see why you shouldn’t do as you please, as long as you’re careful. I will, however, be joining you when you visit Cherry’s parents. As a precautionary measure, in case things go awry. I’ll have to make some arrangements first, but we should be able to leave by the end of the week.”
It was obvious from Alex’s eager expression that he’d go along with anything to get the go-ahead for his silly fantasy. I didn’t exactly view things the same way. It was weird how readily Constantine had agreed.
“Precautionary measure?” I asked. “You plan to mind-wipe them, if our little reunion is threatening to the vampire community?” Meaning if my parents somehow realized I was undead, freaked out, and threatened to tell the world about our existence.
The look he gave me was full of scorn. “No.” The word sounded like it was mentally accompanied by several non-flattering adjectives. “What I had in mind was that you’ll have a member of the council with you, in case another vampire realizes what you’re up to. My presence will make your visit legitimate.” I could swear I heard him finish his sentence in my head with, “You idiot.”
“Oh.” Because, what else could I say? He only had our best interest at heart, and I really should stop being so suspicious of him. If he said it was all right, it probably was. “Okay then, I guess.”
Constantine grinned. “Besides, a road trip with just the three of us? Think how much fun it will be.”
Yeah, he was hiding something, all right. All this cheer wasn’t normal. “What’s in it for you?” I asked.
“Just the pleasure of your company.” His mocking tone and arched eyebrow didn’t exactly vouch for his sincerity.









Sotia’s making do with Greek reality, while writing and mostly thinking in English.


She loves romances with a twist and urban fantasy novels, always with vivid erotic elements. Her favorite characters to write are not conventional hero-material at first glance, and she enjoys making them fight for their happiness.


Sotia shares her life and living quarters with her husband, their son, and two rescue dogs, one of which may be part-pony. Sappy movies make her bawl like a baby, and she wishes she could take in all the stray dogs in the world.


Also, she hates mornings!





Author's Links













https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4597070.Sotia_Lazu

https://twitter.com/justsotia

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sotia-Lazu-Author/506067129453183


http://www.amazon.com/Sotia-Lazu/e/B006ZXWZYK
















Now The Giveaway









Tour giveaway One paperback of Cherry Blossom open to international shipping 3 ebook copies of Cherry Stem (Book I) Rafflecopter a Rafflecopter giveaway