Blog Tour: Behind Blue Lines Series by Christine Zolendz @ChristineZo #giveaway

Jun28

Series: Behind Blue Lines Series

Titles: Resisting Love and Searching for Love

Author: Christine Zolendz

Genre: Contemporary Romance

To serve and protect…
That’s my job.
That’s who I am, and what I do.
It’s what I’ve always done.

And when she comes back to town,
She’s all I want,
All I need.

But I know better.
I refuse to give into my desire.
I’ll never hurt her,
Never leave her.

And my job alone threatens it all,
Threatens everything.
I have to stay away,
Otherwise, I’ll break her,
Ruin her,
And destroy us.

What you’re looking for might be right in front of you…

BROOKE FURY
Betrayed. Destroyed. Shattered.
But, I’m used to it.
After all, I’m a cop, and I’ve seen the worst.
I just never thought it would happen to me.
But it did.

Now, I can’t trust anyone.
Not him.
Not myself.
Nobody.

RYAN CAGE
Determined. Loyal. Honest.
But she won’t trust me,
Won’t let me in.
Even though I’m a detective,
I can’t solve the mystery.

No matter how hard I try,
She pushes me away.
What she doesn’t realize,
Is I’m the one thing she can count on,

Forever.

Christine Zolendz, a USA Today Bestseller, resides in New York City with her favorite NYPD detective and their two beautiful daughters. She loves reading, writing, wine, and caramel lattes.

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Blog Tour: When Beauty Met the Beast #romance #suspense @Khardinegray1

Jun28

Title: When Beauty Met the Beast

Series: Vandervilles, Book 1

Author: Khardine Gray

Publisher: Khardine Gray

Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill

Release Date: June 10, 2017

Genre(s): Contemporary, Suspense

Words: 60,000

View on Goodreads

About the Book

Blurb

WhenBeautyMetTheBeast

Betrayal, obsession, revenge. Can love conquer all?

Deep beneath the veneer of luxury, beauty, and wealth, lie secrets that could be used to destroy the Vanderville family. Secrets that a cold, calculating, and vengeful person has been collecting, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to exact a cruel and painful revenge…

Rejections turn to romance?

An obsession brews into a whirlwind romance that threatens to be torn apart by a bad boy’s bad habits. Will a love so passionate yet unstable be able to withstand the turmoil that’s sure to blossom from a plot for revenge?

Double betrayal, despair…

Waiting for a wedding proposal, Taylor is instead handed betrayal. Her cheating father betrays his wife and shatters his daughter’s heart at the same moment she discovers the man she loves has been lying to her.

Careers hang in the balance…

What do the Vanderville Matriarch’s powerful position in the fashion industry, a greedy States attorney, and a budding creative director all have in common? Careers compromised by the cold hunger of a vengeful person.

Surrender yourself to the gripping story surrounding the Vanderville Family and their friends. Discover for yourself if love, both romantic and familial, can survive the frigid reality of betrayal and revenge.

Excerpt

Was someone watching Ben, and sending him threatening messages? Honestly, it didn’t surprise her. Only God knew how many enemies the man must have had.

With her heart pounding and hands shaking she started opening the smaller envelopes. The first one gripped her, it had a drawing of Ben in his office at work. Sitting on his desk in a very seductive manner was an image of his busty secretary blowing kisses at him.

The next letter, however, brought home the seriousness of the situation to her as she read it. It was written in dark red ink and stated:

You shouldn’t have so much sugar in your coffee, and your wife should wear the new lipstick she bought last week. It will match that dress she’s wearing perfectly.

Taylor should take better care of her cat, and Wade needs better lighting in his room. It would be a shame for him to leave again when he’s only just returned.

It was only after she read that that realization truly dawned on her and tore at her insides.

Regina gasped. This person wasn’t just watching Ben. It was all of them. They were watching all of them, and this note was recent. As in a few days ago recent. Wade had only been home since Monday, and she bought that lipstick last week.

Cold terror gripped her in its icy embrace, and she could do nothing but stand there and stare at the note, paralyzed with fright. Someone was watching them, and watching so closely that they knew how much sugar Ben put in his coffee.

God!

Were they watching her now? Could they see her?

She whirled around and looked at the large casement window behind her. Maybe they could see her in here. Maybe they had cameras set up inside the house.

She looked back to the note to read it again, and noticed how the letters on some of the words smudged out. That was when it occurred to her that it wasn’t written in red ink.

It was…blood!

Buy Links

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU

About Khardine Gray

Author Bio

KhardineGray

Khardine Gray is a contemporary romance author who lives in England with her husband and two kids. She is well travelled, cultured, and a woman with a passion for dancing and ice skating.

When not writing you can catch her shopping, indulging on pizza and hot chocolate, or hanging out with her family and friends.

No need to spend money on an airline ticket. Simply pick up one of Khardine’s books to become immersed in the fascinating stories and characters she creates.

Connect with Khardine

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway

Khardine Gray is giving away an e-copy of When Beauty Met the Beast. Enter via the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win. The giveaway closes at midnight EST on July 7, 2017, and is open to entrants worldwide.

Good luck!

Enter here.

Tour Stops

June 26

Paranormal Palace of Pleasures
CelticLady’s Reviews
The Bookery Review
Abibliophobia Anonymous
Punya Reviews…

June 27

Book Lovers 4Ever
Ariella’s Bookshelf
Pam of Babylon
Dandelions Inspired
Books, Dreams, Life

June 28

My Fiction Nook
Happy Ever After
All Things Bookaholic
Up ‘Til Dawn
The Opinionated Woman’s Musings

June 29

The Bookworm Lodge
Outrageous Heroes of Romance
Drops of Ink
Voluptuous Book Diva
A Naughty Book Fling
Ramblings of a Book Nerd

June 30

Sassy Book Lovers
EskieMama Reads
Amy’s Bookish Life
Shh, I Am Reading
Always Love Me Some Books

Tour Hosted by LoveBound Promotions

Completed #atozchallenge @AprilAtoZ #reflections

Jun26

I decided to participate in the A-to-Z challenge last April 2017 as a way to challenge myself to post more frequently. As expected, I was DRAINED!!! So much so, this reflections post is about 2 months late. It was definitely a challenge this past month to get my posts done (almost the whole alphabet).

The hosts of this challenge decided this year that bloggers should post the link of their posts daily instead of a signing up at the beginning of the month. Because of this, I missed a lot of traffic that I had the last time I participated. Since this is a hobby, I prioritized going to my job that pays the bills and taking care of my grandmother over posting my links. Any who.

My theme was ROMANCE AUTHOR NAMES.

Click on any letter to see the corresponding post .

As you can see, some letters are missing. It is what it is.

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Cover Reveal: What If I fall by Cherie Marie and LB Russell #romance @AuthrCheriMarie

Jun23

Title: What If I Fall

Author: Cheri Marie and LB Russell

Genre: Contemporary/Second Chance Romance

Release Date: August 8, 2017

Photographer: RplusMphoto

Cover Designer: Book Nerd Designs

Models: BT Urruela & Julie Mick-Schalm

Jameson Bradley is a sweet, sexy, cocky, alpha of a man – and everything I’ve been trying to avoid. Since the death of my husband Brady, less than a year ago, a relationship is the last thing I’m looking for. But apparently the universe doesn’t care what I want…

Aurora Broderick is everything I didn’t know I needed in my life. She’s smart, beautiful, strong… complicated. I had every intention of telling her I was a cop… Until she told me about Brady. Knowing how she feels about dating another law enforcement officer, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. Losing her before she is actually mine – it isn’t an option.

Secrets. Lies. The ultimate betrayal.

Jameson isn’t the only one with secrets. When everything’s out in the open, what path will Aurora choose?

Author of Hearts Aligned (Self-published 2016), a military romance, Cheri Marie lives for a good read with an alpha hero and strong, stubborn heroine. After many years of starting books and never finishing, she took to Word in April 2015 determined to write and finish her first novel. Nights that turned into mornings and a whole lot of unruly characters she finished Hearts Aligned. Currently, she is in the works of publishing her second and third novels set to release the beginning of 2017 while writing three others set to release in the Spring, Summer and Fall later in the year. Residing in sunny Southwest Florida, she lives with family, five dogs, a cat, a tank full of fish, and a bearded dragon named Toad.

LB Russell lives in a small-ish town in northwest Georgia. After years spent in retail hell she took some time off to take care of her family. She still resides in that same town she grew up in with her husband, son and the behemoth cat that isn’t really her cat. She sat down with a good friend this past summer and started writing what would be her first work for publishing. With several more titles planned she hopes to do this for a long time.

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Love in the Time of cholera #romance #bookclubpick #bestseller

Jun20

Love in the Time of cholera

Synopsis
This is a story of loss love. Florentino and Fermina were lovers separated at a young age because her father did not approve of the relationship. Fermina was soon married to a local doctor. Fifty years later, Fermina’s husband dies and Florentino decided that the flame of love had never completely been extinguished.

Opinion
Our book club decided to read this book for the month of January and I was very excited. I thought I would like this book more than I did because, from the blurb, it seemed like a sweet romance.

I do think that the writing was very descriptive and sounded extremely romantic. The author painted a picture of every character that is mentioned with much detail. It made it very easy to visualize the setting and the people within.

BUT…

When it comes to unrequited love, I have a few rules. One of those is that the hero and the heroine should save themselves for each other. Granted in this case, they had to wait 50 years before they actually got together. I tried to be a little lenient because a person, realistically, is probably not going to wait 50 years pining over lost love.

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However in this book, I think the fact that Florentino slept with more than 600 women seemed excessive. Even when I tried to rationalize it by saying he was trying to re-create the love he had for Fermina, I still think he was a male whore. Many times, he seem to choose women who were emotionally unavailable. In the end, he chose a girl who was around the same age as Fermina was when he met her for the first time, making him a dirty old man.

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I would have preferred if Fermina had been a more likable character. She seems so angry, haughty, and arrogant all of the time. When she had the choice to choose love over money, she chose money. Then it seems as if she was bitter because Florentino eventually had money and wealth that she wanted from the beginning.

I thought there was too much time spent talking about the 50 years that they were not together, especially since they were not pining for each other. They live their lives. While they have their moments where they wondered what could have been, it did not seem that they had a burning love. I would have preferred if the story had focused on them getting to know who they were after the fifty-year gap.

I also took issue with the way that rape was glossed over and even romanticized in the book. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the author was male and probably could not adequately understand how that act of violence would traumatize a woman.

TOW Final Word: Buy, Borrow, Pass?

I say Borrow, but this was an Oprah book club pick. She liked it enough to encourage everyone to buy it. For me, even though the writing was extremely descriptive and beautiful, this was a difficult read because the story’s content fell short for me.