Blog Tour & Giveaway: The Real Thing by Cassie Mae

Welcome to the official blog tour for THE REAL THING by Cassie Mae

THE REAL THING Written by Cassie Mae
Published by Flirt
August 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-553-39253-1

In this electrifying novel from Cassie Mae, two close friends surprise themselves by shifting from platonic love to sexual attraction.

Eric Matua has one friend—his best friend and childhood sweetheart, who needs a place to stay for the summer. Mia Johnson has thousands of friends—who live in her computer. Along with her email chats and Facebook notifications, Mia also devours romance novels, spending countless hours with fictional characters, dreaming of her own Romeo to sweep her off her feet. When she starts receiving supersweet messages from a stranger who thinks she’s someone else, Mia begins to believe that real love is possible outside her virtual world.

When the two friends become roommates, Mia finds herself falling harder than she ever thought she could. But Eric keeps his desires locked away, unsure of himself and his ability to give his best friend what she deserves in a boyfriend. As her advances are continually spurned, Mia splits her time between Eric and her computer. But she soon realizes she’s about to lose the only real thing she’s ever had. 

Get your copy of THE REAL THING

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iBooks  |  Google Play  |  Kobo  |  Other retailers

SNEAK PEEK

THE REAL THING EXCERPT 

(from Chapter Two)

It’s been three hours since I’ve turned our sauna into an icebox. I keep waiting for Em to crawl out of her room to congratulate me on my newly formed handyman skills, or follow through on that threat she made, but it’s been pretty quiet. She closed the door and I don’t know if she’s taking a nap or what, but that little ego boost she gave me earlier has sort of faded into oblivion. Maybe she wasn’t as thrilled to spend time with me as I was with her. Or maybe she thinks I’m boring. Maybe it’s still weird, and we’re adjusting to seeing each other after so long.
     Or maybe I’m just being a damn pussy.
     I hoist myself off the couch, tossing the remote behind me. The sweat from earlier left my clothes damp, and now that it’s about twenty degrees cooler, it causes a chill to run up my spine. I check over my shoulder before lifting my arm up to sniff my pit. Shit, no wonder . . . she could probably smell my hard work the second I came back inside.
     Grabbing the bottom of my cold, sweat-riddled shirt, I pull it off on my way to the bathroom. Hopefully she’ll hear the shower and know I’m doing something about the stink, and that it’ll be safe to venture out as soon as I get my sweaty ass washed.
     Her door opens with a bang, and I bolt into the bathroom so she doesn’t see me. I know it’s stupid, but give me ten pounds more muscle and twenty pounds less fat, and maybe I’ll be okay with her catching me without a shirt on.
     “Hey Eric!” she calls from her room.
     “Uh, yeah?”
     “Could you come here for a second?”
     My hands fumble over my counter for cologne, deodorant . . . something, just let me find something. “Give me a minute . . .” I dive for the counter under the sink and praise the heavens when I spot the air freshener. I know I told her I’d be living like I normally do, but as I spray the air freshener out in front of me and walk through it, then do it three more times, I’m pretty sure I lied. After a few sprays on my shirt, I tug it back on, rolling it down my torso.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cassie Mae is a full-time writer and mother from Utah. She loves being glued to the computer, thinking up new stories, and writing the day away while the kids run wild at her feet. When she finished her first novel, she started a blog that now gets more than five thousand hits a month. Her group blog is also dedicated to reaching out to aspiring authors by providing critiques and other marketing tools to help them succeed in the industry. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with the youth in her community as a volleyball and basketball coach, or searching the house desperately for chocolate.

Connect with Cassie

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  | Pinterest 

Connect with Flirt

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

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Blast: Witch Hunter Olivia by T.A. Kunz

Witch Hunter Olivia
by T.A. Kunz

In the town of Piedmont Pointe, where paranormal is the norm, a girl can easily get herself in over her head with a single wrong move. Unfortunately for Olivia Adams, she’s about to make several.

Starting over is never easy, but it seemed like the only option to Olivia. The decision to turn her back on the Guild of Witch Hunters, the very group she devoted her entire life to, was one of the hardest things she ever did. It meant leaving her family, her friends, and her old identity behind forever. Coming to terms with what caused her to abandon her duties in the first place was even harder.

While trying to lay low and stay off the Guild’s radar, Olivia finds herself thrust back into her old ways after unknowingly interrupting an assassination hit on a powerful witch. What follows is the last thing she ever thought she’d agree to do—protect the very thing she was groomed to hunt.

To complicate things even further, Olivia begins to develop feelings for a tattoo artist who also happens to be half warlock, and no matter how hard she tries to fight it, she can’t resist her inescapable draw to him. Olivia’s forbidden relationship isn’t her only issue though, because once the mystery behind the assassination attempt starts to unravel, she’s forced to choose sides when the loyalties still tied to her past life are tested again.

So much for the idea of a fresh start.

 Here's what New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors are saying about Witch Hunter Olivia by T.A. Kunz:

"Witch hunters and sexy tattoo artists? This New Adult Paranormal is EVERYTHING fans of romance and action are looking for."
- #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout

"A fun, action-packed, enjoyable read!"
- New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack

"The perfect blend of New Adult and Paranormal. It's absolutely fantastic!" - New York Times bestselling author Nichole Chase

WHERE TO BUY

Amazon • Amazon UK • Amazon AUS • B&N • iBooks • Kobo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author T.A. Kunz has always had a fondness for reading thrilling mysteries and action-packed urban fantasies. So, it was no surprise when T.A. decided to write stories that they’d fall into one of those two genres. T.A. lives in Central Florida with two fur babies and a mechanical engineer who also happens to be quite the culinary badass, which there are no complaints about. Being a self-diagnosed caffeine addict, many joke that T.A.’s addiction to Starbucks coffee will likely be their downfall later in life.

Website ~ Twitter

Happy Release Day: Tease by Sophie Jordan

Tease (The Ivy Chronicles #2)
by Sophie Jordan

A young college woman gets schooled in life, sex, and love in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s sizzling New Adult romance series—where three Ivy League suite-mates testing their boundaries as they seek higher knowledge of just how far they can go.

A born flirt and good-time party girl, Emerson has never had a problem finding a willing guy. She’s always chosen her hook-ups carefully, and she's never broken her three cardinal rules:

Never let them see the real you.
Never fall in love.
Always leave them begging for more.

Then comes Shaw. A hotty from the wrong side of the tracks, he’s immune to her flirtatious banter and come-hither smile. After rescuing her from a disastrous night at a biker bar, he doesn’t even try to take her to bed—he calls her a tease and sends her home instead. Unable to resist a challenge, or forget the sexy dark-eyed bad-boy biker, she vows to bring him to his knees.

But instead of making Shaw beg, she finds herself craving him. For the first time in her life, she’s throwing out her rulebook. Suddenly, she’s the one panting for a guy she can’t control. A guy who won’t settle for anything less than the real Emerson, who forces her to do things she’s never imagined, including facing a past she thought she'd buried.

A guy who just might leave her wanting more . . .

WHERE TO BUY

GIVEAWAY

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Cover Reveal: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love
by Colleen Hoover

Release Date: August 5, 2014 by Atria Books

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.

UGLY LOVE hits bookshelves August 5th. Pre-order your copy today!
Amazon Kindle
Apple iBookstore
Barnes & Noble
Blio
Books-a-Million
Google ebookstore
IndieBound

 

Blast: Better When He's Bad by Jay Crownover

You’ve met Rule, Jet, Rome, and now Nash! But there’s a new boy in town, along with a new series, by Jay Crownover. Better When He’s Bad (Welcome to the Point #1) is a new adult novel scheduled for publication on June 17, 2014 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing. 

Welcome to the Point

There’s a difference between a bad boy and a boy who’s bad . . . meet Shane Baxter.

Sexy, dark, and dangerous, Bax isn’t just from the wrong side of the tracks, he is the wrong side of the tracks. A criminal, a thug, and a brawler, he’s the master of bad choices, until one such choice landed him in prison for five years. Now Bax is out and looking for answers, and he doesn’t care what he has to do or who he has to hurt to get them. But there’s a new player in the game, and she’s much too innocent, much too soft…and standing directly in his way.

Dovie Pryce knows all about living a hard life and the tough choices that come with it. She’s always tried to be good, tried to help others, and tried not to let the darkness pull her down. But the streets are fighting back, things have gone from bad to worse, and the only person who can help her is the scariest, sexiest, most complicated ex-con The Point has ever produced.

Bax terrifies her, but it doesn’t take Dovie long to realize that some boys are just better when they’re bad.

Damn, right?  You can read the first chapter of Better When He's Bad at the end of Nash's book.

“It’s dark and dangerous and set in a fictitious underworld/bad part of town. The men in all of the books are way more along the line of being anti-heros than true leading men. I guess the easiest way to sum them up is by saying the books are all about the choices these characters have to make and the outcomes and results of those decisions. Bax’s book is all about having to make the hard choices and what becomes of him and his lady in doing so. They are super fun, very atmospheric and I think really what writing a bad boy should be like if you’re going to do it :)”

Pre-Order Links:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

St. Patty's Pinterest & Facebook Party

Join your favorite YA and NA authors as we celebrate being Irish for a day and play on Pinterest. 

There will be over 45 e-book giveaways!

You can join the Facebook party HERE!

You won't want to miss it!

Participating Authors:

Lila Felix   A. W. Exley  Melissa Pearl   

Jessica Gibson  Cindy M. Hogan  Sarah Ashley JonesMarie Landry  Rachel Morgan  Jennifer SnyderStacey Marie Brown  Jessica Therrien  D.L. Raver Stacey Wallace Benefiel  Marilyn Almodóvar  Angee Taylor A.O. Peart  Devyn Dawson  Rick Chiantaretto Raine Thomas  L.P. Dover  Tamara Hart HeinerLeigh T Moore  Meradeth Houston  Amber Argyle
Tawdra Kandle  Carlyle Labuschagne  Lisa Collicutt

Christy Dorrity  Stephanie Fowers  Kristina Renee

Faith McKay  Charlotte Abel  Jamie Ayres

A.M. Hargrove  Charli Webb  Amy Harmon  

Alyssa Rose Ivy  Kristie Cook  Lani Woodland

T.M. Franklin  Laura Howard  Sharron Riddle

Eliza Tilton  S. M. Boyce  Bethany Lopez 

Dawn Leigh  L.A. Casey  Emma Adams  

Amber Garr  Liz Long

Also, don't forget to enter for a change to win a YUMMY cookie basket because ya know, COOKIES!

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Review: The World Without A Future

Title: The World Without a Future
Author: Nazarea Andrews
Publication: 2013
Reviewed by: Stephanie
Rating: 4 stars
Reason for Reviewing: Ebook provided in exchange for an honest review.

She was born the day the world ended…

Nurrin has lived her entire life with zombies—trapped behind walls meant to keep them safe. She’s mostly happy there. But when a zombie horde breach the walls of her Haven, she has to trust her brother, Collin, and his best friend to keep her alive.

He just wants his past to die…

Finn O’Malley has given up on voicing warnings that are ignored. No one cares that the zombies are changing. Now all that matters is keeping Collin and Nurrin safe from what’s outside the walls of a Haven. But when Nurrin’s best friend picks up a contact infection, he agrees to get the medicine needed to save his life. Forced together, relying on each other in a strange Haven, zombies aren’t the most dangerous thing they’re facing.

In their world, only one thing remains true: everything ends in blood.

 

This New Adult Zombie Dystopian story had me at the edge of my seat page after page. There are so many emotions and thoughts running through my mind right now about what I just read. Just wow...where to start? This world that the author, Nazarea Andrews, created is extremely frightening with the infected hordes of zombies taking over most of the world except gated communities called Havens. One by one these Havens get breached by these zombie hordes and humans are either infected or slaughtered. The way these zombies are described, from the way they move and scream, paints such a vivid gruesome picture. Instantly, I was transformed within these pages walking along side the characters and so fearful of what would happen next.

Let’s talk about the two main characters Nurrin aka "Ren" and Finn O’Malley. Nurrin is a beautiful, sassy, tough, young woman who is considered one of the “first” as she was born the day the zombie apocalypse world started. This makes her extremely sought after by the Order which is an organization who believes that sacrificing the first borns as tribute will bring about less zombie attacks. Yeah, a twisted way of thinking, but in this world nothing seems moral anymore. On that note, enter the extremely handsome, cocky, hot tempered Finn O’ Malley. He oozes sex and mystery which is very intriguing especially to Nurrin. These two characters have such great, complicated chemistry with each other. It’s obvious they want to jump each others bones, but they just can’t stand each other. Definitely a lot of teasing going on in this story, lol.

After I read the whole book, I just sat there and let it all truly sink in. I had so many mixed emotions about how the story ended. I kept thinking to myself, hmmm, when will the author start wrapping this book up because I still have so many questions that need answering. The ending leaves you hanging from the cliff...literally! Do keep in mind that this is the first book in the series so answers should be revealed in the following books. *wink* With all that being said, I really enjoyed this page turning fright fest. The steamy sex scenes almost made me forget that flesh eating zombie hordes are hiding in the shadows. In all, a great read if you enjoy zombies, horror, action, drama, sex, and fast cars. I can’t wait for book two! I need book two!!! *already twitching with zombie withdrawals* No pressure Ms. Nazarea Andrews. Haha.

  

Review: For Real

Title:  For Real
Author: Chelsea Cameron
Publication:  November 14, 2013
Reviewed by:  Isalys
Rating:  3 Stars
Reason for Reviewing:  E-book provided in exchange for an honest review.

Two people. One fake relationship. What could go wrong?

When virgin Shannon Travers gets fed up with her friends demanding that she find a boyfriend, she enlists the help of tattooed, mohawk-rocking graphic design student Jett. He’s more than happy to play along with their Fake Relationship, including the Ten Rules of Fake Dating that control-freak Shannon comes up with. Even if he likes to violate them. Repeatedly.

But what happens when Fake Dating starts to feel… not fake anymore? Will Shannon be willing to let go and embrace the first thing in her life that’s ever felt REAL?

Poor virgin Shannon is being dragged by her friends on yet another misadventure to finally rid her of that pesky V-card that she's holding on to.  Finally fed up with the pressure being put on her, she meets and befriends Jett who agrees to "fake date" her so that she can get her friends off her back.  What starts off as a fake relationship soon turns into an easy friendship, an intense attraction, and very real love!

I liked Shannon but liked Jett much more.  She is ambitious, studious, and hard-working, but a push-over until she finally reaches her limit.  She was also a bit perplexing.  While she had the strength to pull herself away from the family that held her back, she hardly managed to stand up for herself to her "friends", and was completely oblivious to Jett's feelings.

Sweet, Asian Jett WINS!  He's attentive, considerate, and tattooed with just a touch of geekiness that made him especially sexy yet endearing.  Even though he wasn't the one telling the story, you know almost immediately that his feelings for Shannon were very real.  He was so genuine.

As for the secondary characters, the "friends", I had very mixed feelings.  Shannon's friends, while I don't think they meant to hurt Shannon, were [to be frank] kind of dicks to her.  They pressured her to do something that she wasn't ready for and then made HER feel guilty about it.  *swats with newspaper* Bad friends, bad! More than once, Shannon tried to validate her friendship with Hazel (her BFF) by commenting that she had been there for her before.  However, the author didn't expand on that so all you really got to see were the bad qualities.  Sadly, their friendship left a lot to be desired.  On the other hand, Jett's friendship with his roommate, Javier was a more complex.  A muscle-head with an obnoxious sense of humor, he's easy to brush off until you come to learn that Javier is a very loyal friend with a good heart who helped Jett when he had no one else to turn to.

Shannon & Jett's relationship, however fake they intended it to be, was playfully sweet and real.  It was hard to understand why they felt the need to fake it or why it took them so long to figure out how real it had become.  However, it was still gratifying when they learned their true feelings for each other.

Although the premise wasn't completely original, it was a simply sweet story and a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Cover Art: Surrendering To Us

SURRENDERING TO US (Surrender Saga #2)

by Chelsea M. Cameron

Release Date: January 2, 2014

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

They're finally together. But the Universe seems intent on tearing them apart…

Rory Clarke might not be Lucah Blythe's boss anymore, but that doesn't mean they can sneak off to the boardroom for hot sex whenever they want. Keeping their hands off each other in the workplace is harder than they could have imagined, and that's not the only obstacle they have to deal with. Between Lucah's troublesome brother Ryder, and Rory's bff Sloane's inability to understand locked doors, they're drowning in drama.

But it's only about to get a lot worse when a blast from Lucah's past surfaces, and chaos at Clarke Enterprises threatens to take away everything Rory has worked so hard for. Can the couple weather the storm and surrender to each other, or will the challenges of staying together destroy their relationship for good?

GIVEAWAY

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Blog Tour: Beautifully Awake

Title: Beautifully Awake
Author: Riley Mackenzie
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 2, 2013
Hosted By: Love Between the Sheets
Reviewed by: Taryn
Reason for Reading: Ebook provided in exchange for an honest review.

Lili Porter hates the rain. Bad things happen in the rain. As a small town social worker dedicated to protecting children, she is forced to start over to escape her rural disaster. Determined to follow her father’s advice—head up and chin high—Lili finds herself in a new city, taking on a new system, this time healthcare. In doing so, she gets something she never expected, an intimate behind-the-scenes look at life in the hospital.

Lili learns that a surgeon’s hands have the power to heal more than physical wounds. And a prescription for truth can cure three years of sleep running and leave you beautifully awake.

 WHERE TO BUY 

Amazon UK | Kobo | iBooks

Lili is a social worker who left her small town to take a job as a case manager in Pediatric Surgery at Philadelphia Hospital. Due to budget issues, resources had to be reallocated and case managers started to rotate on different surgery services. At the beginning of the story, Lili had just started a new rotation in Neurosurgery. Her first encounter with the sexy, chiseled Dr. Chase Colton, Chief of Neurosurgery, left her awestruck. Their mutual attraction was instant and magnetic. She was then invited into the OR for surgeries in which the patient was woken up mid-procedure. Very quickly, Lili and Chase’s relationship moved from professional to personal as they were unable to ignore their intense connection. Over time, they had to help one another come to terms with their traumatic pasts in order to move on and find true happiness together.

When I first read Beautifully Awake’s description, I knew it would appeal to me since I’m such a big fan of medical dramas on TV. As promised, there was a glimpse into the daily workings of a hospital and its staff. We got to know Guy--the 3rd year resident with a bit of a crush on Lili, Sam--the intern, Jackson--the physician assistant, Leanne--the nurse, and Kate from the recovery room. And we also got to see what happens in the on-call room, if you know what I’m saying. ;) I’m not sure how realistic all of these medical details and scenarios were, but it was fun to read anyway.

I had mixed feelings about Chase as a love interest. He was attractive, mysterious, and an unselfish lover. He treated Lili well, wining and dining her in New York City and spoiling her with designer shopping sprees. But at the same time he was extremely possessive, which was a big turn off for me, and some of his lines were too cheesy for my taste.

Lili and Chase’s chemistry was off the charts. This story was more explicit than the romances I usually read, so be prepared for some seriously steamy scenes. But it wasn’t all lust and passion--Lili and Chase connected on a much deeper level, too. Once they finally opened up about their pasts, they helped each other start to trust again and let go of guilt.

Some of my favorite secondary characters were the best friends. Sierra, Lili’s pregnant BFF, wasn’t afraid to tell her the truth and was always there to support her and listen to her problems. Sierra also provided a lot of comic relief with her pregnancy stories. Asher was also a great friend to Chase, and toward the end of the story, Lili found herself wondering why Asher was still single. I was thinking the same thing while reading. It turns out that the next book in the series will tell Asher’s story!

I recommend Beautifully Awake to anyone looking for a sexy and entertaining read about two broken people who help one another heal their emotional wounds.

GIVEAWAY

Prizes:
(5) Signed Paperbacks of Beautifully Awake (US Only)
(5) $5 Starbuck's Gift Cards
(1) Grand Prize: Kindle Paperwhite 

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Beyond Control

Welcome to the Official Tour for BEYOND CONTROL by Karice Bolton

New Adult Contemporary Romance Gabby Sullivan learns in college that some things are impossible to control, and whenever life has spun out of control bad things seem to happen. She promises herself that she’ll stay a safe distance from the top three culprits: Sex Love Relationships But some things are beyond control… Gabby handles her mom’s death and brother’s sudden abandonment just about as well as anyone could at the age of twelve. Left feeling alone, she finishes high school, developing a bit of a wild streak, and lives like there’s no tomorrow. That is until an illness stops her in her tracks. Learning to control life around her becomes her comfort. With a visible scar that reminds her and the world that she beat the odds, it’s impossible for her to put everything behind her, no matter how hard she tries. Right out of college she begins working at her family’s company and buries herself in the safety of the corporate world. No extra time, no life, no relationships. It’s safe to say she might be a little demanding and overly ambitious, but she’s got everything under control, just how she likes it. Jason’s been trying to piece his life together after a personal tragedy, only it’s not working. He’s thrown himself into his work, but he’s only becoming angrier. He’ll never forgive himself and doesn’t expect anyone else to either. When the back of his vehicle is clipped by an obnoxious limo driver he can’t wait to let the driver have it until he hears Gabby’s voice coming from inside the sedan. There’s something soothing about it, something familiar. The moment she sees him, she knows her life will never be the same. But she doesn’t know why. He’s everything she said she never wanted. He’s cocky, arrogant, and infuriating. With his dazzling amber eyes, dark hair and chiseled features she can hardly remember where she’s going, let alone where she’s been and maybe that’s a good thing. She begins to let him show her what life could be, if she really lived it. Neither wants their past to define their future, but sometimes destiny has something else in store. It’s only as their love grows and secrets are revealed that they realize a devastating connection from their past might actually tear them apart.

WHERE TO BUY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karice Bolton lives in the Pacific Northwest and is a writer of Young Adult and New Adult books. She loves to read anything and everything. She also enjoys baking, skiing, and spending time with her wonderful husband and two English bulldogs.   Books currently available:

• Beyond Love Series: Beyond Control (#1),
 Beyond Doubt (#1), and Beyond Reason (#3)coming soon
• The Witch Avenue Series: Lonely Souls (#1), Altered Souls (#2), Released Souls (#3), and Shattered Souls (# 4)
• The Watchers Trilogy: Awakening (#1), Legions (#2), Cataclysm (#3), and Taken Novella (Watchers Prequel)
• The Camp

Karice would love it if you stopped by her blog or FB page to find out the latest news on giveaways and upcoming releases, or you can just send her an email. She loves hearing from her readers and responds as soon as she can.

Pinterest/Twitter/Facebook: @KariceBolton  

www.karicebolton.com  

Email: info@karicebolton.com

GIVEAWAY

1 Winner will get a Kindle PaperWhite OR $139 Amazon Gift Card

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