Animation by Kayelle Allen at The Author's Secret

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Released Tuesday: Worth the Risk. A sizzling new title from @JLoweryauthor


Hello peeps, Jennifer here to rock your military romance socks off!  My new release, Worth the Risk, Book #2 in my Wolff Securities Series, is available now for pre-order—Woot! It will release March 20th so get your orders in now! 
If you haven’t read the first two books, no worries, these are standalone as well as part of a series—although I do hope you’ll read them all ;) The Wolff brothers are a tight-lipped bunch but I managed to get them talking long enough to write their books, lol, so the more support the better!

A friend and author asked me why the hero of this book had me falling in love with him. A great question and one I am happy to answer here for all of you. Kell Wolff, the hero of Worth the Risk, was one of the most forth-coming Wolff brothers, even if he didn’t say much, lol. I knew from day one he was running—literally—from his past and the woman who tore his heart out. He was a fun mix of thrill-seeker and loyal, the one you wanted watching your six. He had kind of a warped sense of humor his brothers don’t care for, but Kell gets a kick out of needling them. He was kind of dark, but not in a tall, dark and brooding way. More, haunted. And I’m a sucker for the strong, silent types. He did manage to surprise me at the end of the book—sorry, no spoilers here—and I was so touched I fell for him all over again. I enjoyed watching Kell come to life and I hope you do, too!

If you’d like to read Kell’s story, click on this link: Amazon
If you would like to read the first two books, Maximum Risk and Not Without Risk please go to my website HERE for purchase links.
P.S. The first book in the series, Maximum Risk, is on sale for .99 cents for a limited time!

Blurb:

He’s a risk-taker…
Private security specialist, Kell Wolff, lives life on the edge. Falling for CIA agent, Shea Morrissey, fit his risk-taking lifestyle. Until she walked away without as much as a goodbye. Now, four years later she’s in trouble and needs his help, but the thought of seeing her again risks having his heart ripped out of his chest a second time. But Shea’s agenda coincides with his own so he can’t say no.
She’s the biggest risk of all…
Shea Morrissey has gone off the grid in pursuit of the man responsible for the death of her sister. Determined to take Ramil Diakameli down, she’s given up everything. Including the man she loved. Now, she’s in danger, her mission in jeopardy and the only person she can trust to help her is the man she walked away from. In order to survive, she and Kell must fight side by side and put their past to rest so they can work together.
Excerpt:

Copyright ©2018 by Jennifer Lowery


     Suddenly more gunshots rang out. Men started falling around them. Kell pulled his K-Bar out of the chest of one man and let him crumple to the ground. Their saviors in robes and sandals advanced on them, bleeding and battered, but alive.
            He turned to see more villagers behind them. They looked terrified, shocked.
            But it was Shea who he ran to. Blood covered her from head to toe. Or so it seemed to his addled brain. He couldnt think straight. Could barely stand. Something was wrong with his legs.
            He watched Shea crumple to the ground and reached out to catch her. He did, but his strength had sapped away and he dropped to his knees, Shea in his arms. He stared down at her white face, willing her to open her eyes. But, she didn’t.
            Terrified hed lost her he pulled her to his chest and toppled over as everything went black around him.

Author Bio:

New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer Lowery is a romantic at heart. She believes that happily ever after is only the beginning of her stories. And the road to that happy ending is paved with action, adventure, and romance.
She debuted her first book in 2012 which made her dreams of being a writer come true, followed with her SEAL Team Alpha series and loves her job as much today as she did then. She is delighted to bring you stories from the heart and hopes you enjoy reading them as much as she did writing them.

Connect with Jennifer:

Read more about her books on her website: https://jenniferloweryauthor.com/
Please "like" her Facebook author page! https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferLowery/
Sign up on her website with your email and never miss another update from Jennifer: https://jenniferloweryauthor.com/
Join Jennifer’s Street Team: https://jenniferloweryauthor.com/
Love my books? Want to receive news, releases, giveaways, and more directly to your inbox? No spam, just the info you want to know!
Sign up with your email today and dont miss out on news from me!

Thank you for having me today, Manic Scribbler!!  I just want to send out a big THANK YOU to all my readers out there! Without you I wouldnt be here. My wish is to one-day meet each and every one of you so I can personally thank you for your generosity and support! 
All my best, 
Jennifer

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Here at last! A great new #romance #chicklit from @StacyJuba



Do you love sweet romance novels that make you laugh? Then you'll want to check out Stacy Juba's brand new chick lit novel, Prancing Around With Sleeping Beauty, the second book in the Storybook Valley series. The book was released March 5, and while it's a follow-up to the popular Fooling Around With Cinderella, both novels can also be read as stand-alones. Come discover Storybook Valley, a fictional theme park in the Catskills of New York. If you love small town romance with humorous characters, theme parks, fairy tale fun, and amazing love stories, then Storybook Valley will be your new favorite series.
Prancing Around With Sleeping Beauty funny chick lit
This Sleeping Beauty isn’t sure she wants to wake up…
Dance instructor Rory Callahan likes to play it safe. When she meets Kyle, he’s impulsive, persistent, and her exact opposite. He’s pushing her to tango way past her comfort zone and keeping Rory on her toes more than twenty years of dance teachers ever had.
Unfortunately, he’s the grandson of her family’s arch-rival and she doesn’t want to disappoint them. After all, her parents imagine her as a proper princess - hence her namesake Aurora, AKA Sleeping Beauty. Complicating matters, Rory’s also dealing with a surgeon boyfriend who’s perfect for her (sort of), an obnoxious boss, and desperate dance moms. Kyle wants to change her whole life, but Rory doesn’t like the stakes. After all, princesses are the ones who get the happy endings. . .aren’t they?

Excerpt:
Twilight had descended over the strip mall which also contained a pizza place, children’s art studio, New Age shop, bakery, and a consignment store with identical brick facades. A long sidewalk connected the storefronts. Rory’s phone chirped and she scanned a text as she strolled through the parking lot. A message from her older brother Jake, who lived in Maine.

Happy 25th. What new rose crap did you get this year?

Instead of making her chuckle, his joke elicited a sigh. She missed Jake and his toddler Quinn, but he never came home anymore thanks to a stupid fight with their parents. They went ballistic after he got a girl pregnant and accused him of ruining his life. Jake and the mother broke up, not surprising since she was a total flake, but he got an apartment a couple blocks away from her to be near his daughter. His absence meant he couldn’t take over the theme park, leaving room for Dylan to step forward.

Heading toward her car, she replied: Don’t know yet. I’m on my

Augh! Rory stumbled over something and toppled to the ground, her phone sailing through the air. Her right hand slammed against the pavement, and pain seared through her. Sitting up, she glared at the object that had blocked her path. A spiky creature in a plastic carrier glared back at her.

Rory blinked. She could accept a black cat crossing her path, but she owed her unceremonious spill to a needle-infested rodent?

“Who leaves a porcupine in the middle of the parking lot?” she demanded.

“Who trips over a huge animal carrier? Oh, right, someone who’s texting while walking.” A brown-haired guy in a khaki zookeeper uniform and boots loomed over her. She stiffened at his words until she noticed the dimples sprinkled with cinnamon freckles. He wasn’t mad, just amused. “And it’s not a porcupine. It’s a hedgehog.”

“What’s the difference? It was still in the middle of the parking lot.”

He crouched beside her. “For starters, hedgehogs have shorter quills that can’t easily come off their bodies, while a porcupine’s quills can easily detach themselves. On average a hedgehog has 7,000 quills while a porcupine has approximately 30,000. And a porcupine can grow to triple the size, between 25-and-36 inches.”

“It was a rhetorical question.” Rory risked a glance at her throbbing hand and winced. Blood dripped down her finger.

“I’ll admit that you’re worse off than Turbo. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll get the first aid kit.”

Mr. Porcupine Expert disappeared into a green van so garish, it almost distracted Rory from her pain. Painted animal heads peered out of big circles and orange letters proclaimed the monstrosity a Zoo Mobile—with paw prints forming the double ‘o’ in zoo. It wouldn’t surprise Rory if a white rabbit in a waistcoat popped out from the Day-Glo monstrosity, muttering about being late . . . for a tea party at her house using Wendy’s bumpy place-mats. She groaned, deciphering the smaller words beneath the paw prints. ‘Duke’s Animal World.’

She’d always considered her family’s rivalry with Duke Thorne a bit ridiculous, but now Rory related to her granddad’s agitation. Thanks to sprawling over one of Duke’s stupid hedgehogs, she might have sprained her finger.

Shifting position, Rory glowered through the cage at the spiky black ball that had caused all the trouble. It huffed and puffed, quills poking outward, a breathing pincushion. My . . . she hadn’t realized hedgehogs had such tiny eyes. And what a cute button nose. This little guy—Turbo?—seemed skittish.

“Hey, there, Turbo,” she murmured. “Guess it was my fault, too. Did I scare you?”

“He’ll be okay.” The dimpled zookeeper reappeared with her cell phone, along with a toolbox-sized red first aid kit. He unlatched the kit, opened a box of gauze pads, and bent beside her. “Let’s apply pressure to stop the bleeding.”

“I can do it.” Rory squashed the pad against the cut, her cheeks heating, whether from his boyish good looks, or the mortification of falling over a hedgehog, she didn’t know. She hoped he couldn’t detect her blush under the lampposts’ dim glow. She rested her wrist on her knee. “What are you and Turbo doing here, anyway?”

“The art studio had a zoo night. The kids decorated animal statues and then I did a presentation. I was just about to load my last animal, Turbo, into the van when you went flying.” He jerked his thumb toward the Zoo Mobile. “I’ve also got a red-eyed tree frog, bearded dragon, chinchilla, and domestic rabbit.”

“Is it a white rabbit?” Rory muttered.

Mr. Porcupine Expert elevated a brow. “Not this time. What’s your story? What were you doing here?”

“I’m an instructor at the dance studio. We were having an open house. I got a text, and apparently, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Rory battled the temptation to peek under the gauze.

“Let me get this straight. You’re a dancer? I thought dancers were graceful.” His brown eyes crinkled with amusement. Their shade reminded her of a caramel latte, warm and inviting.

“I am graceful! This was an isolated incident.”

“Uh-huh. I’m Kyle, by the way. And you’re . . .?”

“Rory.”

“How about I make it up to you with free zoo tickets? You can come meet Turbo’s parents. I’m sure they’ll forgive you if I explain that you’re a dancer with two left feet.”

He wore such a deadpan expression that Rory almost laughed. His dry comic delivery must enliven his presentations. Her grandmother Lois, Storybook Valley’s self-appointed entertainment director, would remark that Kyle had charisma.

Rory might enjoy touring the zoo with him, but her granddad would lock her in with the lions if she ventured onto his rival’s property. Growing up, she had never been allowed to visit Duke’s. “Thanks, but that’s okay. As I was telling Turbo here, it was my fault. I should have been more aware of my surroundings.”

She peered into the cage. Was it her imagination, or did Turbo look calmer now in Kyle’s presence? His quills had relaxed, laying down and pointing toward the back.

Kyle picked up the animal carrier and straightened to his full height. “How about I show you my passengers while you’re applying pressure? The least I can do is keep you entertained during your misery.”

After a hesitation, Rory climbed to her feet and trailed him to the Zoo Mobile. With her left hand, she finished a clumsily misspelled text to Jake, omitting mention of the accident. Otherwise, her brothers would ask her for the next month if she had tripped over any hedgehogs lately.

She leaned against the van as Kyle slid the bearded dragon’s carrier out the side door and positioned Turbo’s cage in its place. Over the next ten minutes, he explained how many bearded dragon species existed (nine) and what they ate (insects). If Rory ever appeared on a TV game show, she hoped they quizzed her on bearded dragons, porcupines, and hedgehogs.

Kyle discussed animals the same way Brad talked about robotic-assisted surgery. She wondered if Kyle had a college degree. Her guess was no. After all, how much schooling did it take to drive a Zoo Mobile? Once you memorized the spiel and learned how to care for the animals, what else was there to learn? As an employee that far down the company ladder, Kyle probably wasn’t aware of the Callahan feud.

After the bearded dragon lecture, Rory washed her cut and rubbed in bacitracin ointment. Kyle unwrapped a large Band-Aid, but instead of extending it to her, he pressed the patch over her skin. As their fingers touched, a shivery sensation whispered down Rory’s spine.

I am not attracted to the zoo guy.
Buy it on:




Fooling Around With Cinderella funny chick litEver wondered what those cheerful theme park princesses are really thinking? When twenty-five-year-old Jaine Andersen proposes a new marketing role to the local amusement park, general manager Dylan Callahan charms her into filling Cinderella’s glass slippers for the summer. Her reign transforms Jaine’s ordinary life into chaos that would bewilder a fairy godmother. Secretly dating her bad boy boss, running wedding errands for her ungrateful sisters, and defending herself from the park’s resident villain means Jaine needs lots more than a comfy pair of shoes to restore order in her kingdom...

Check out the Storybook Valley series at these retailers:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBookstore
Kobo
And if you discover that you love the Storybook Valley books, be sure to join Stacy's street team, the Storybook Valley Sweethearts, on Facebook for book launch activities and exclusive sneak peeks. Members will get to hear the latest Storybook Valley news before anyone else, and even read excerpts of works-in-progress and give input on cover design.