If Stars Were Wishes by Audrey Carlan
Growing up, I believed in infinite possibilities. I wished on stars and let my imagination prepare me for the unknown. The older you get the more you realize that you have power. You have been given the free will to control your own path. Jump into your destiny feet first. And I knew for certain that no matter how much power I had, time was a luxury that would never be mine.
Unlike my mother and father, who were happy to live out their days on a Native American reservation in Colorado, I wanted to explore, to experience the many splendors the world could provide…before it was too late.
I couldn’t avoid the siren’s call of the big, wide-open world.
What I didn’t know was my life would be filled with challenges, highs, and lows the likes I couldn’t have prepared for. I have many bittersweet memories and even more where the sweet outweighs the bitter. Despite it all, I wouldn’t change a thing.
My experiences, my choices, have led me to where I am. Helped form the woman I’ve become.
A wife.
A mother.
A woman at peace with her destiny.
My journey has been rife with uncertainty, joy, fear, love, hate, strife, sacrifice, and everything in between. I’ve experienced unbelievable pleasure and gut-wrenching pain. Some may despise me for the choices I’ve made. Some may applaud them. Either way, I lived for today.
My name is Catori…and this is my story.
Those Three Little Words by Meghan Quinn
I knocked up my best friend’s sister.
Figured I would get straight to the point because how it happened is a mere snippet of the story I have to tell. The real meat and potatoes is what happened after.
Let’s start with how she decided to inform me and Pacey the news . . . together. Imagine that nightmare. I was going into what I thought was a hockey marketing meeting and then BAM! I’m going to be a dad and my best friend/teammate is attempting to imprint my face with his fist.
It wasn’t pretty.
Threats were tossed around, friendships were revoked, and then I was marched up to her apartment, suitcases in hand, and forced to live with her so I could take care of her every need. Given how much I’ve pined for the girl, you would think that wouldn’t be a hardship. Wrong.
This is my one shot to win my teammate back. Pacey is the only family I’ve got, so hooking up with his sister isn’t a mistake I can make twice . . . despite the fact that she’s pregnant with my child.
But with every mood swing, every pair of pants that doesn’t fit right, and every late night run to find the perfect donut, I’m finding it harder and harder not to fall for my best friend’s little sister.
Especially when she kisses me…
Gold Lust by Aleatha Romig
Sexy, mysterious, with secrets hiding in the darkest of shadows, Donovan Sherman has stopped at nothing to achieve success. No one was immune.
One snowy night, his world and his life changed when he found Julia McGrath at the side of the road.
Finders keepers.
With Julia’s happiness as his new goal, he must keep his past hidden. Unfortunately, the casualties he’s left in his wake are back to threaten the life and love he never thought he’d have.
Will Donovan’s sins destroy their future?
Can Julia navigate the unfamiliar landscape where lust is more precious than gold?
From New York Times bestselling author Aleatha Romig comes a brand-new age-gap, family saga, chance meeting, contemporary romantic-suspense novel in the world of high finance, where success is sweet and revenge is sweeter.
Have you been Aleatha’d?
*GOLD LUST is a full-length novel and book three of the Sin Series that began with RED SIN, continued with GREEN ENVY and GOLD LUST, and will conclude with BLACK KNIGHT.
Βelow Zero by Ali Hazelwood (Audio first)
Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: When it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn….
Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station – but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.
Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?
To listen to Mara and Sadie’s stories, look for the novellas Under One Roof and Stuck with You, available first on audio!
Claiming the Cowboy by Kennedy Fox
Early morning feedings, barn clean up, and chasing goats are Knox Bishop’s everyday routine. That changes when a bachelor auction brings him face to face with the world’s most forbidden fruit—his twin brother’s crush.
He shouldn’t tempt her, but the way her body reacts to his makes it too damn easy.
Hadleigh has known the Bishop twins all her life and they’ve never crossed the lines. That is until she fools around with Knox and learns he has a piercing south of the border. A piercing she very much enjoys licking.
She knows his main hobby consists of random weekend hookups, but she can’t get the taste of him off her mind.
Admitting what she feels wouldn’t be so difficult if Kane Bishop hadn’t just confessed his feelings for her too. Now she finds herself wedged between two brothers—one she could break and one who could break her.
**Claiming the Cowboy is a complete stand-alone and can be read without reading any of the other books or spin-off series, but if you prefer to read in order, start with Hitching the Cowboy as the characters and families do interconnect.**
Lover Arisen by J.R. Ward
Possessed by the demon Devina, Balthazar is once again on the hunt for the Book of Spells—and fighting an undeniable attraction to a woman. As a thief, he has stolen a lot of things…but he never thought his heart would be taken by another. Especially not a human.
As a homicide detective, Erika Saunders knows there is something otherworldly going on in Caldwell, New York. Mutilated bodies that cannot be explained are all over her case list—and then there are her nightmares in which she’s hunted by shadows and captivated by a mysterious man who is both a suspect and a savior.
When Devina’s wish for true love is finally granted, Balthazar and Erika unwittingly become the gateway for the rebirth of an old enemy of the Brothers. Will the very thing that brings them together lead to the ultimate destruction of the Brotherhood? Or will they have to lose everything in order to save the race’s most sacred defenders?
The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa
Just weeks away from ditching DC for greener pastures, Solange Perreira is roped into helping her wedding planner cousin on a random couple’s big day. It’s an easy gig… until she stumbles upon a situation that convinces her the pair isn’t meant to be. What’s a true-blue romantic to do? Crash the wedding, of course. And ensure the unsuspecting groom doesn’t make the biggest mistake of his life.
Dean Chapman had his future all mapped out. He was about to check off “start a family” and on track to “make partner” when his modern day marriage of convenience went up in smoke. Then he learns he might not land an assignment that could be his ticket to a promotion unless he has a significant other and, in a moment of panic, Dean claims to be in love with the woman who crashed his wedding. Oops.
Now Dean has a whole new item on his to-do list: beg Solange to be his pretend girlfriend. Solange feels a tiny bit bad about ruining Dean’s wedding, so she agrees to play along. Yet as they fake-date their way around town, what started as a performance for Dean’s colleagues turns into a connection that neither he nor Solange can deny. Their entire romance is a sham… there’s no way these polar opposites could fall in love for real, right?
Famous in a Small Town by Kylie Scott (Live 4.7)
Two years after his wife’s death, rock star Garrett Hayes hasn’t moved on. But he has moved out of L.A. Where better to escape his past than a small town in the northern California mountains? If only he could get the townsfolk of Wildwood to leave him the hell alone.
Ani Bennet returned to her hometown for some much-needed serenity. The last thing she needs is a grumpy, too hot for his own good, rich and famous rock star living next door—and rent-free in her brain.
She set her fangirl tendencies aside and deleted his photo from her cell when they became neighbors. But when Garrett asks for help, she can’t say no. The problem is, spending time together is making those fangirl feelings resurface—and bringing them to a whole new level.
What chance does a small-town girl have with world-famous rock star? It’s time for Ani to set her fears aside and find out.
Parks and Provocation by Juliette Cross (Live 4.7)
Lola Landry stares through the window of her locked car with the keys in the ignition and the radio blaring Beck’s “Loser.” While standing there and sweltering in the soupy Tennessee humidity, she wonders how her orderly life had crashed and burned so badly. Then her high school nemesis saunters up in all of his tall, strapping, fireman-to-the-rescue glory, slapping her with the humiliating proof that it can always get worse.
When the uber-confident Jedediah Lawson requests a date in return for popping her lock, a lightbulb goes off. Revenge is sweet. He would make the perfect victim—guest, that is—for her next podcast episode on Kiss and Tell. What shocks her is the casual way he not only agrees to the post-date interview on air, but ends up hijacking her audience and wooing them with his swoony, southern charm. Not even a low score on the date-o-meter can dissuade the man or keep her fans from demanding more of the charismatic Jed.
What’s worse, she secretly wants a second date with this man who is so different from his teenage self. His unwavering patience and dimpled smile erodes her will, until she breaks the Kiss and Tell rules by agreeing to a second…and a third date. It’s a disaster. Not the date. They’re wonderful. The disaster is that she is falling for a man she once dubbed Jockstrap Jed.
‘Parks and Provocation’ is a full-length contemporary romance and can be read as a standalone. Book #2 in the Green Valley Heroes series, Green Valley Chronicles, Penny Reid Book Universe.
Flirt by Adriana Locke (Live 4.8)
I’m a single female that’s tired of relationships ruining my life. However, there are times when a date would be helpful. If you’re a single man, preferably mid-twenties to late-thirties, and are in a similar situation, we might be a match.
Candidate must be handsome, charming, and willing to pretend to have feelings for me (on a sliding scale, as the event requires). Ability to discuss a wide variety of topics is a plus. Must have your own transportation and a (legal) job.
This will be a symbiotic agreement. In exchange for your time, I will give you mine. Need someone to flirt with you at a football party? Go, team! Want a woman to make you look good in front of your boss? Let me find my heels. Would you love for someone to be obsessed with you in front of your ex? I’m applying my red lipstick now.
If interested, please email me. Time is of the essence.
The Secret by Max Monroe (Live 4.9)
Dear Fellow Bookworms,
I need your help.
I, Rachel Rose, am in quite the pickle with a hot-as-sin English Lit professor by the name of Ty Winslow, and I don’t know how to get out of it.
Let me break it down for you:
Girl meets Guy.
Girl gives Guy her underwear on a dare but nothing else identifying (like her name or number) because she plans to never see Guy again.
But Girl does see Guy again, in a very professional setting, where she is to be the Teaching Assistant to his Professor for an entire semester.
Girl would like to ignore all events of the past, but Guy is a whole list of tempting things that are hard to resist. (See below:)
#1: Insanely attractive.
#2: The most fun a girl could ever have.
#3: Successful and intelligent.
#4: He can quote Walt Whitman at the drop of a hat—which I’m sure you know is a dangerous thing for a literature-lover.
#5: Smooth with a capital S. He could charm the panties off a woman WITHOUT the help of a dare.
And now, Mr. Hot Professor, the man I’m determined to resist, is challenging me to a competition—a playful, secret game, so to speak—where the winner takes all.
My plan? Play the game long enough to win—long enough to walk away with the upper hand—without doing something stupid like falling in love.
It’s possible…right?
If you have any advice, please reach out to me soon—before it’s too late.
XOXO,
Rachel
