Ready for a kick-ass, older heroine and a cocky cowboy? HellKat has it all: romance, mystery, suspense, unrequited love, and dangerous family secrets. Give Kat and Tucker a try. You've got nothing to lose except a great story ... and maybe a little sleep.
Kat James likes her men in suits, not cowboy boots. Is it time for a different kind of man?
Saddle up for a story filled with passion, mystery, unrequited love, and family drama. Can Tucker Williams prove he's the best man for Kat? Or will an old-flame win her back?
It won't matter, if Kat doesn't survive her family’s dangerous secret.
EXCERPT
“You don’t remember seein’ me that day before I talked to you at the bar, do you?” Kat thought about it and then shook her head. “I didn’t think so.” Tucker scratched along his jaw, and sighed.
“Well, I saw you. I saw you up the street, runnin’ and dodgin’ people.” He smiled at the memory. “I still don’t understand how you women run in heels.” He shook his head in disbelief, and maybe even a little awe. “Your legs, I noticed immediately. Your umbrella lifted up a few times and I saw your face, stopped my heart for a beat or two. Then I saw where you were headed, knew right then I had to get to the door before you did. Had to find a way to get your attention.” His eyes dropped. “But it didn’t work. You looked right past me, like I wasn’t even there. I heard your name when you checked in, and then I knew I had a decision to make.” He looked down at the coffee mug squeezed between his large hands.
“We can argue all night about me not comin’ clean on who I was. But the truth, for me, is once I knew you didn’t recognize my name, didn’t know I was the one you were waiting for, I decided then and there to be Tucker Williams—the man, not the pompous venture capitalist.” He paused, searched for recognition. She rewarded him with the hint of a grin at the echo of her own words. “I wanted a chance, Kat. I wanted you. I wanted you to flirt with me the way you did that pretty boy behind the bar.”
He chewed at the inside of his cheek and waited. Kat glanced down at her lap, attempted to hide her smile.
“I’m not the sorta guy you usually go for, am I?”
“Not even close.”
“So why did you, Kat?”
(HellKat by Robyn Roze, copyright 2015)
Robyn Roze lives amongst the cornfields of the Midwest and telecommutes as an accountant. Writing was a childhood dream of Robyn’s. She won creative writing awards as a girl and teachers encouraged her to pursue a writing career. But pragmatism won out, and she boxed the dream away on the maybe-someday shelf.Maybe-someday came for Robyn in 2013 when she published the Keeper Series, a new adult romantic suspense story. Then she shifted gears and decided to pen a novel with a much more mature cast—Chain of Title was born, her bestselling title. Readers have been loud in their demand for a sequel, and Robyn is currently working on the next chapter of Shayna and Sean's love story. And her latest book, HellKat, released in June 2015. All of Robyn’s stories contain one key element that her readers love: a strong, independent heroine.
When she’s not spending time with her fictional families, she loves to spend time with her real one: her high school sweetheart, their two moody teenagers, and a pampered rescue mutt.
The Purple Door Detective Agency is hiring.
Those without magic need not apply.
Salary commensurate with experience.
Apply at the agency. No phone calls or psychic links.
Published: September 1st, 2015
The Purple Door Detective Agency is hiring.
Those without magic need not apply.
Salary commensurate with experience.
Apply at the agency. No phone calls or psychic links.
Sunshine Merryweather is a young witch with a passion for colorful clothes and good food. She is the owner/operator of the Purple Door Detective Agency. Her partner, John, was brutally murdered three days ago, and she won’t stop until she finds his killer.
Aine is only interested in one thing when she walks into the building with the purple door–locating the last man alive in the branch of the O’Neill family she haunts as a beane sidhe. She has been asleep for 200 years in a ruined Irish castle and realizes that the world has moved on without her. She needs to find the O’Neill heir and encourage him to start a family or she will pass from existence when he dies.
Sunshine sees a potential partner when she looks at the powerful beane sidhe – they could be the next Dynamic Duo! But Aine isn’t interested in Sunshine’s schemes – until the witch agrees to help her locate O’Neill. Even then, it will be a short-term association at best from Aine’s point of view. She has no need of witchcraft.
Neither woman is aware of the danger they face as an ancient assassin stalks the old port city of Norfolk, Virginia. It will take more than simple witchcraft or beane sidhe magic to stop the killer. They will have to work together and combine their talents.
But can Sunshine and Aine put aside their differences to stop the murders without tearing each other apart?
Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant.
GUEST POST
Why a Banshee?
by Joyce Lavene
From Be My Banshee
Purple Door Detective Agency #1
I’ve had more than a few people ask this question: Why write about a witch and a banshee running a detective agency together?
The answer must have to be – why not?
First of all, I love witches and other paranormal, supernatural creatures and lore – including the beane sidhe (correct spelling). The beane sidhe is a fascinating creature woven throughout Celtic mythology. She is not evil but rather sad, doomed to haunt a family only to remind them when it’s time to die.
She has several different forms she can use to appear to the family members. There is a beautiful young woman who can appear, helpless and unsure where she is. There is the terrifying crone with skeletal features who seems more a curse. And there is the older woman, gentle and kind, dressed in black mourning clothes.
I think the beane sidhe must have been a strong woman to be treated this way – a woman who did things she probably shouldn’t have done. She was punished for those things by becoming a bane on a family and yet, what she did wasn’t meant to be malicious. The problem seemed to be mainly in the delivery of the message.
How great would it be to team up two women – a witch and a beane sidhe – to solve mysteries? What lurks behind the purple door where they live and work? That’s what I wanted to explore with this book. They say a witch lives behind a purple door – but what if she had a beane sidhe helping her?
Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant.They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.
Author's Giveaway
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18+ What happens when the man you’re married to isn’t the man you married anymore?Find out in Kathy Coopman's Contrite series! This Duet has been bundled into one complete set for ONLY $0.99!
Contrite
What happens when the man you’re married to isn’t the man you married anymore? Clove Calloway knows within an hour of picking up her husband Turner from the airport that something is different. Yet she can't pin point what. Together since College, they know everything about each other. So why has she spent the last few days watching everything he does, hoping for a clue? What could have happened within that week he was gone?
One way or another she's going to find out.When Clove invests in the help of her brother Zack, a police detective, she’s afraid her suspicions of infidelity will be confirmed. Terrified that such news will crush her heart, she sets about preparing for the worst.
Only to find it's much more than she could have imagined—there is no other woman.
Clove’s life is about to descend into a web of deceit, lies and betrayal. Appearances can be deceiving… and only the Master Manipulator will be left standing.
“The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” – Henri Bergson
ReprisalClove Calloway thought she ended her nightmare life when she stabbed herself.
When the darkness took over, she thought she’d find peace. Seeing her husband die by the hands of his traitorous brother, Trent, destroyed her. Little did she know, her dreadful life without Turner is just the beginning. She awakens from one nightmare right into another, confined in a house with the Master Manipulator of them all.
Now, she's fighting for her life instead of trying to end it. As the truth unfolds, layer upon layer of deceit could suffocate her. How many times and in how many way can she be betrayed? But Clove refuses to lose. Just how she's going to win is a plan she's yet to determine...
Zack is determined to find his sister Clove, he knows she is out there somewhere. He can feel it. He wants her home. And he is going to find her! He’s ready to take down the evil that has her in his clutches. Only he’s just as shocked as Clove when the truth unfolds…
There’s more…. So much more. Are you ready?
Revenge.
EXCERPT
I look at the clock and realize I still have an hour left. Turner is on a conference call, therefore I can’t ask him if he wants to skip out a little early and get to the bar for happy hour. Reaching for my phone, I decide to kick back and relax and maybe download some new songs. I plug in my phone to keep it charged and start listening to some music as I browse through the new selections.
“Clove?”
I jump, catching sight of Zack out of my peripheral vision.
“Christ, you scared the shit out of me!”
I sit back in my chair with a smile on my face, placing my hand over my heart as I slump back in my seat. I laugh, finding the situation funny. Pulling my ear buds out, I watch my brother as he strolls in and sits across from me at my desk. But he’s not laughing or smiling.
“There’s something wrong,” I say in a strangled voice.
“Yeah, there is.”
“Is . . .?”
I start crying and can’t seem to get any words to come out. My chest starts heaving and I hold onto the edge of my desk, my knuckles snow white from my tight grip.
“Is he cheating on me?”
“It’s worse. Much worse.”
The way he looks at me tells me whatever his news is, it’s going to rip me to shreds.
“Wha-what is it?” I can barely choke the words out.
only .99 for limited time
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Amazon Best Selling Author Kathy Coopmans, lives in Michigan with her husband Tony where they have two grown sons.After raising her children she decided to publish her first book and retiring from being a hairstylist.
She now writes full time.
She's a huge sports fan with her favorite being Football and Tennis.
She's a giver and will do anything she can to help another person succeed!
Use whichever one of these you would like babe.
Melissa Grant has escaped the clutches of death, not once, not twice, but three times. While she considers this to be divine intervention, her assailant is sure that her luck will run out, and the authorities are suspicious that Melissa isn’t as innocent as she seems.
Published: August 17th, 2015
Melissa Grant has escaped the clutches of death, not once, not twice, but three times. While she considers this to be divine intervention, her assailant is sure that her luck will run out, and the authorities are suspicious that Melissa isn’t as innocent as she seems. Implicated in the murders of two of her closest friends, and running from both a hit man and the law, Melissa does what is thought to be impossible in the 21st Century – she disappears.
Julie Lawson has no family, no friends, and no past. She spends her days photographing the country and her nights tossing and turning as nightmares plague her sleep. While passing through the town of St. Brendan, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Julie finds some things she hasn’t had in a very long time – a home, friends, and love. For the first time in two years, Julie can see her future, but she can attain it only by surviving a predator from her past.
Eric West has a past of his own that he is trying to forget. His return to his hometown keeps his demons away until he meets Julie, and she stirs up emotions in him that he hasn’t felt in a long time. As he slowly begins to let go of this past, Eric tries to break down the walls that Julie has so tightly built around herself. Gaining her trust one small act at a time, and hiring the best investigator in DC to dig for answers, Eric opens the Pandora’s Box to Julie’s past which threatens all of their futures.
EXCERPT
With her heart beating wildly, under the cover of the loud music, she tiptoed toward the bedroom window where the fire escape was. Praying that the man would not turn toward the bedroom, she quietly raised the window while holding her breath and praying it wouldn’t make a sound. Not daring to look back, she dropped herself onto the landing, sucking in frigid air and almost choking as her feet hit the icy metal.
Melissa flew down the fire escape slipping and sliding on the smooth, glassy coating. Her bare foot slipped out from under her on the last step sending her reeling back onto the stairs and hitting her head. Looking up, she saw the masked man lean out of the window above her.
Melissa had no time to even check her head for blood as she wrenched herself from the sidewalk and ran for her life.
About the author:
Amy MacWilliams Schisler, of Bozman, has been writing all of her life for fun and as a freelance writer. A graduate of University of Maryland College Park with a Masters of Library and Information Science, Amy has resided in Talbot County for 21 years. She was employed as a school library media specialist at White Marsh Elementary and Chapel District Elementary and a reference librarian at Chesapeake College. For the past eight years, she has operated her own computer tutoring service working primarily with senior citizens while spending as much time as possible writing. Amy was a contributing editor for the reference series Best Books For Libraries 2004 Edition and is included in Who’s Who Among American Women. Schisler’s first children’s book, Crabbing With Granddad, is an autobiographical work about spending a day harvesting the Maryland Blue Crab and is available in local stores and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum as well as on Amazon. Sarah Book Publishing released Schisler’s novel, A Place to Call Home, in August of 2014. A revised second edition was released in March 2015.
Picture Me, A Mystery was released on August 17, 2015. The book follows the plight of a young woman as she journeys across the country assuming one identity after another in order to stay alive. When she lands in a small port town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and meets the man of her dreams, she lets her guard down and puts her heart and her life in danger.
A former librarian and teacher, Amy now lives in Bozman, Maryland with her husband, three daughters, and two dogs where she is very involved in her local community. Amy is the leader of Girl Scout Troop 453, Director of Summer Roundup Girl Scout Camp, and active in her family’s church and school.
Author's Giveaway
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Description:In the late spring of 1991, a flood and fire of historic proportions tore through the pretty resort town of Obergrande, New York, in the central region of the Adirondack mountains.
The twin disasters destroyed a large part of the east side of the town that bordered the Hudson River and Lake Obergrande.
In the aftermath, a new dam was built, and that damaged part of the town “drowned,” covered by the new, larger lake.
During that terrible flood, five kindergarten girls were trapped in their drowning school, huddled together as the water rose higher, rescued just in the nick of time. The nightmare bonded them, and three others like them, to each other for life.
These are their stories.
EXCERPT
In the blue light and wisp-thin clouds of this late June morning, Donovan Farrell, a wide-shouldered man in a leather motorcycle jacket and jeans tucked into heavy boots, came out of his motel room, his helmet in one gloved hand, directions in the other, a string-banded rollpack across his back.
He stopped, absently admiring the color of the sunlight on the clouds at the horizon, and took a deep drink of the morning air.
His hair, hanging long in dark brown waves that matched his heavy, somewhat unkempt beard, caught the wind and danced around his head for a moment.Donovan, known as Van to the few people who knew him, set his helmet down on the bike that was parked outside his room, a Yamaha FZ6 in the same gleaming black as the full-face helmet, and stuck the paper on which he had jotted down the directions inside it for the moment to keep it from flying away in the breeze.
He drew his hair back in a hair tie so that it was out of his face, retrieved the paper, then pulled the helmet on.
Scanning the directions again, Van made a mental note of the route he planned to take, as he did each time he got on the bike.
He was avoiding the New York State Thruway, partly because of the expense, partly because the eastward drive by way of Route 20 was more scenic and offered more opportunities to stop, stretch, and eat over the course of the day.And partly because, unlike the Thruway, Route 20 was quiet and mostly empty.
It added a couple of hours to his trip, but Van was not in a hurry.
He had nothing but time now.
He looked at the destination, which he had underlined several times upon writing it down.
Obergrande, New York.
And exhaled.
Then he got on the motorcycle, started it up, and headed east.
Polly Becks has been making her living writing for more than twenty years, as well as working as an editor, curriculum developer, and teaching secondary-school Spanish. She has more than 350 books to her credit, mostly educational materials, as well as professionally published fiction in both the adult and YA market in a variety of genres, plus more than 30 Children’s books. She is excited about exploring the digital literature frontier and is honored to be the launch series for GMLTJoseph, LLC. See more at:
