Pieces of a Life: Part One by Jewel E. Ann
The summer before fourth grade, Colten Mosley moved into the house across the street from mine, and we became inseparable.
He played the piano and baseball.
I had a penchant for dead things while at the same time imagining what it would be like to kiss Colten.
We were filled with curiosity and overly active imaginations.
We were also forbidden to be more than friends.
But that didn’t stop us.
Weeks before graduation, he annihilated my heart, and it’s been seventeen years since the day I knew I’d hate him forever.
Now he’s back in my life—a single dad and a homicide detective looking over my shoulder while I perform autopsies as one of Chicago’s most gifted forensic pathologists. Then fate throws us a curveball.
Colten saves my life, but he can’t erase the images that now keep me awake at night. And I can’t explain them.
Am I still the girl he’s always loved? Or nothing more than pieces of that life?
*This story contains sensitive and graphic content.
Shattered Sea by Catherine Cowles
I’ve known every kind of pain. Of the heart. Of the body. Of the soul. All I want now is the freedom that comes from making my art.
The last thing I expected was Hollywood royalty to waltz into my gallery in a small town in the middle of nowhere and see me.
A man like Boden Cavanaugh shouldn’t understand me. Shouldn’t be able to soothe my most ragged edges. Even worse, he makes me want the one thing I can’t have. Him.
All it takes is one spark, and friendship catches flame. But as our attraction burns bright, there are forces desperate to send us back into the darkness. And they’ve already killed before…
So It Goes by Jennifer Probst
The truth? Lonely advertising rep Malia Evergreen is still waiting for a soul mate, marriage, and a family. The lie? Telling every busybody she knows that she’s met someone. Now it’s a matter of finding him. Malia needs a date for a wedding. In a pinch she strikes a bargain with her former client, CEO Palmer Matterson—an arrogant, defiantly single, alpha billionaire whose best quality is insincerity. The perfect fake date.
Palmer has wanted Malia from the first moment he saw her. A challenging, sexy career woman who knows what she wants. It’s just not him. Not yet, anyway. This is Palmer’s chance to win her heart.
As fate throws them together, Malia unravels the layers of the man she thought she knew and, against the odds, finds herself falling in love. Palmer’s falling too. If only they can convince each other what they share…a belief in a happy ever after.
The Revenge by Tijan
Bailey and Kash were used to living in the shadows. Now they are thrust into the public eye. Together, they can do anything, but undeniable danger and seemingly insurmountable challenges threaten the love and passion that binds them.
1. Bailey is reeling from the greatest loss she has ever suffered.
2. Enemies are closing in.
3. Even bigger secrets and twists are coming to light.
Win or lose, for Bailey and Kash, everything is on the line.
Only Us by Kennedy Fox
I had a picture perfect life. At least everyone thought I did.
But behind closed doors, my life is a mess.
My husband’s far from the man I’d fallen in love with years ago.
As my rocky marriage crumbles, my best friend, Noah, stays by my side.
But then, when my husband dies, the finger is pointed at Noah.
For years, he’s pushed me away, but when his life is threatened, I risk my heart to save him.
Only Us is a friends to lovers, small town romance and is a bundled stand-alone from the Noah & Katie duet.
Pint of Contention by Susannah Nix
MAGGIE
Wicked Witch. Ballbuster. The Terminator. Those are just a few of the nicknames I’ve earned in my professional life. As the executive consultant King’s Creamery has brought in to save them from financial ruin, I have to decide which employees get the ax. I can’t afford to make friends or get chummy with my new neighbors.
Try telling that to the enormous, hunky fireman next door who’s annoyingly determined to make friends with me. It’s not enough that the guy saves kittens from trees, tosses tree trunks around while wearing a kilt, and has a body that makes Thor look puny. He also works out shirtless in full view of my kitchen window. I might be secretly obsessed.
When a newspaper exposé turns the whole town against me, my hot fireman neighbor steps up to act as my protector, and my secret obsession threatens to turn into a case of serious feelings. But I can’t allow that to happen when I’m only here temporarily. I’ve got to keep my walls up to protect the heart everyone thinks I don’t have.
RYAN
My new neighbor might act like she wants nothing to do with me, but I’ve seen her watching me from her window. I can tell she likes what she sees, and I love pushing her buttons—a little too much. I’ve got no restraint when it comes to this woman.
Now I’m screwed because I can’t get her out of my head. The more time I spend with Maggie, the more I suspect she might be the soul mate I’ve been waiting for all my life.
Of course I’d find her now when I can’t risk letting her get too close. If she does, she might discover the secret I’ve been keeping from everyone.
Soul mate or not, I’ve got to let her go. Even if it kills me.
PINT OF CONTENTION is book #3 in the King Family series set in the small town of Crowder, Texas, home of the King’s Creamery ice cream company. Each book is a standalone, full-length contemporary romance that follows one of the six King siblings as they find and fight for love.
No Time to Lie by Lexi Blake
A grandmaster of lies and deception
Drake Radcliffe has spent half his life in the shadows. Recruited by the CIA when he was barely out of high school, Drake doesn’t know how to have a normal life. While most people his age were playing sports or video games, he was playing spy games with the world’s most dangerous adversaries. It has been a life filled with thrills and adrenaline, but it’s also been lonely. All that might change when a mistake from Drake’s past rears its ugly head and he’s forced to face the only woman he ever loved—the one he’d vowed to stay away from.
A beacon of love and compassion
Taylor Cline committed the cardinal sin in her world—she fell for another operative. Drake was everything she wanted in a man, until he broke her heart. She had one unforgettable night with him and then he never looked back. Her future threatened and family in ruins, she shut down and moved on, hoping to never see him again. Just as she is beginning to put it all behind her, a critical assignment puts her under his authority and right back in his arms.
A deadly mission that brings them together
From the wilds of Wyoming to the glittering cities of Europe, Drake and Taylor must race against time to uncover the truth and expose an evil organization. The stakes couldn’t be higher. If they fail, the world could crumble. If they succeed, they could finally have everything their hearts desire.
Collide with Me by Claudia Burgoa
USA TODAY Bestselling Author Claudia Burgoa continues a romantic comedy series of enemies who become lovers. A romance where opposites attract and being different leads to falling in love.
I love routine. Schedules. Stability.
And I’m about to travel across the country with an actual chicken and the one man who I would schedule a root canal to avoid.
How did this happen? Let me back up.
My mom had one final request of me before she died: to spread her ashes around the country while I completed her bucket list.
It won’t be easy, but I want to honor her wishes. However, I need some help (and I absolutely hate that).
I don’t have a license – or a car – and I need someone to drive who won’t mind my mom’s chicken, Hennifer Aniston, on board. My options have been narrowed to one person: Hutch Aldridge-Sanders.
I have no interest in hanging out with the spontaneous, easy-going bad-boy of New York. But he’s my only hope.
I’m dreading being in a car with Hutch’s free spirit for a couple of weeks. Throw in the chicken, and this is bound to be a disaster.
Except that I forgot that opposites don’t just attract—they make sparks fly.
Collide With Me is a sexy and steamy romance. Enjoy this opposites attract, close proximity romance where being different means your pieces fit just right, and coming back home means a new beginning.
Because I Want You by Claudia Burgoa(Live 9.15)
He promised to protect me. Now it’s him I need protection from.
Roselyn Vega –
When Gabriel De Luca waltzed into the nightclub where I was bartending, looking like he’d just stepped out of the pages of GQ Magazine: Wall Street Edition, it felt like fate.
I hadn’t seen him in ten years, but it felt like no time had passed between us. He’d been my first boyfriend, and I trusted him, so when he asked me how I ended up bartending for one of the most feared crime bosses, I told him everything. After that night, he went MIA, and suddenly, I’m very concerned for both our safety.
When he finally shows up, a week later, he’s acting different, walking different, and even looks a little different, but I’m so relieved that he’s okay that I barely register those things.
A couple of nights later, when he breaks into my apartment in the middle of the night I realize that it wasn’t Gabriel who’d walked into the club the other night, but his brother. His infuriating, domineering, dangerous brother, who, unlike Gabriel, followed their father’s footsteps into the world of organized crime. He demands that I pack my bags and go with him. I refuse, fight and argue, but the thing about Dominic De Luca is that one way or another, he always gets his way.
Dominic De Luca –
There’s a code between brothers. I should know. I have a lot of them.
Don’t lie.
Don’t steal from each other.
Don’t f each other’s women *without permission*.
This particular situation made that last one a little less black and white because my brother, my first best friend, the guy who shared a womb with me, failed to tell me that the bartender he’d been seeing was Roselyn Vega. Of course, he wouldn’t tell me. Now the voice message he left before he completely disappeared makes sense. “Take care of her. Don’t f her.”
Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem (read: the code), but it’s a little tricky this time. You see, Rosie was mine before he took her from me ten years ago, and many things have changed during that time. I’ve changed, my circumstances have changed, but my confounding, obnoxious crush on Rosie? Yeah, that’s still the same. He left her in my care and warned me not to do anything, but I’m not making any promises.
**Because I Want You is a complete standalone novel set in the same world as Because You’re Mine and Because I Need You
Nothern Stars by Brittainy C. Cherry (Live 9.15)
Breaking up with your high school sweetheart was one thing.
Breaking up with Hollywood’s favorite actor? That was a different situation.
I’d been in love with Aiden Walters since I was a little girl. We’d grown up as neighbors in small town Wisconsin. I knew him inside and out, and he knew every single piece of me. I was there when his career took off, and I was almost certain I’d always be a part of his life.
It wasn’t until a scandal broke out that I was forced to end things with Aiden. He didn’t take it very well. The boy I once loved began to hate me. He went off to California to leave all of his past behind—including me.
Five years later, he was back in town for the next few months taking care of some family business. He was staying in the only hotel in our small town. The hotel I now oversaw. For the next few months, I’d be forced to cater to the man who’s heart I’d broken all those years ago. The man who resented me. The man who swore he’d never speak to me again.
Now that he was back in town, in constant connection with me, I had to keep reminding myself daily of why I ended things with him in the first place. Otherwise, I’d find myself falling in love with him all over again. Only this time, I was certain that if I’d fell, he wouldn’t be willing to catch me.
The Rules of Dating by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland (Liv 9.15)
It all started when I hosted a little party for a bunch of new friends.
Though “friends” might not be the right word since the invitees were all the women I’d found out my boyfriend was talking to behind my back. When the guest of honor walked in—aka my now ex—things took a turn…
Unfortunately, a stranger witnessed the whole blowout. I was in a mood that night and ended up giving this gorgeous guy an attitude, too. As if my night could get any worse, before he stormed off, he informed me he was actually my landlord.
Colby Lennon, along with three of his friends, owned the building where my tattoo shop was located. He and I were total opposites. He wore a tie, oozed confidence that came with years of women falling at his feet, and wasn’t afraid to say what he wanted, which lately—was me.
I hated that I found myself attracted to him. Especially since I was supposed to be on a self-imposed dating hiatus. Yet the two of us couldn’t seem to stay away from each other. We started hanging out, as friends. I even went as far as making rules for what he’d dubbed our “undates.”
But eventually, our explosive attraction became too much to bear, and we broke our resolve. I let my guard down and started to really fall for Colby.
Nothing could have prepared me for the ride he took me on. And I certainly wasn’t prepared for where I’d wind up when the ride was over.
All good things must come to an end, right?
Except our ending was one I didn’t see coming.
