Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Defending Hayden by L.P. Dover

Defending Hayden
L.P. Dover


(Second Chances #7)
Published by: Random House
Publication date: June 28th 2016
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

No one’s tougher than Carolina Cougars linebacker Derek McLaughlin. But when a fatal car accident claims the life of his girlfriend, Derek finds himself caught in a destructive spiral of drugs, alcohol, and meaningless sex. But not even a string of one-night stands can ease the hurt. Football is all he has left. Then fate leads him back to the scene of the crash, and into the arms of a kind, gorgeous woman who sees past his façade to the man he once was . . . and can be again.
When a chance roadside encounter brings Derek into her life, veterinarian Hayden Hunter isn’t fooled by his bad attitude: All bark and no bite, he’s hiding a wounded heart beneath that gruff demeanor. And Hayden wants to be the one to kiss it all better. Soon they both find that a dose of passion is potent medicine. But when a hidden enemy lashes out at Hayden, Derek steps up to do what he does best: put his body on the line in the name of love.

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EXCERPT

Guilt plagued me and I felt sick. Getting out of bed, I paced the room, running my hands angrily through my hair. I didn’t want to hurt Hayden. Keeping her away would protect her from my life. She was bound to leave me anyway. I’d fuck up somehow and it would ruin her. What the hell was I talking about? I’d already fucked her up.

“Derek?” Her voice was like honey, silky and sweet. I’d imagined what it would be like to hear that voice screaming my name as I fucked her over and over. Last night had been the best night of my life, but it had scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t shake it. “Derek, are you okay?” she asked. Stopping midstep, I turned to face her, and her eyes widenened when she got a glimpse of my face. I could only imagine what she saw. So many emotions battled inside me. She held the blanket to her chest, and her lips trembled. “Please tell me this wasn’t just a game to you,” she whispered.
Swallowing hard, I sat down on the edge of the bed and reached for her. She recoiled from my touch. “None of this was a game, Hayden. Last night was fucking amazing.”
Her eyes glistened, but her jaw was firm. “Then why are you looking at me like that? Like you regret what we did.”
I wanted to touch her, but last night had been my only chance. She’d never let me close to her again. “I don’t regret it, but eventually you will. You’re not the only one who’s lost someone they cared about. I can’t go through it again. It’s best to stop this before it goes any further.”
“Any further?” she scoffed. She waved her arm around the room, her anger so thick I could cut it with a knife. “If you didn’t want it to go any further, then why did you bring me here? Why would you do that to me?”
“Because I care about you,” I said, knowing it made no sense to her.
“Then why are you pushing me away?” she cried.
Standing, I got up and walked over to the window. “You wouldn’t understand.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author, L.P. Dover, is a southern belle residing in North Carolina along with her husband and two beautiful girls. Before she even began her literary journey she worked in Periodontics enjoying the wonderment of dental surgeries.
Not only does she love to write, but she loves to play tennis, go on mountain hikes, white water rafting, and you can't forget the passion for singing. Her two number one fans expect a concert each and every night before bedtime and those songs usually consist of Christmas carols.
Aside from being a wife and mother, L.P. Dover has written over seventeen novels including her Forever Fae series, the Second Chances series, the Gloves Off series, and her standalone novel, Love, Lies, and Deception. Her favorite genre to read is romantic suspense and she also loves writing it. However, if she had to choose a setting to live in it would have to be with her faeries in the Land of the Fae.
L.P. Dover is represented by Marisa Corvisiero of Corvisiero Literary Agency. 

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Cover Reveal + #Giveaway: Stone Walls + Glass Ceilings by A.M. Madden

 

Title: Stone Walls + Glass Ceilings

Series: A True Heroes Novel

Author: A.M. Madden

Genre: Romantic Suspense 

Publisher: Random House/ Loveswept

 

 

What happens when a supposedly perfect match is so wrong it’s right? In this roller-coaster novel of destiny and desire from A. M. Madden, a red-hot cop and a broken beauty are linked by painful pasts . . . and one tempting future.

 

As an NYPD officer, Benjamin Stone is married to his job, determined to clean up the drug-infested streets. His partner, Rob, always has his back—except when Rob and his girlfriend, Andrea, play matchmaker at his expense. On Ben’s birthday, they’re at it again. Andrea’s friend is exactly Ben’s type, even if he stubbornly will never admit it. But it’s not the lithe brunette’s looks that intrigues Ben; it’s the hurt in her eyes.

Ella Parker is bright, beautiful, kind—and, thanks to one horrific night, severely damaged. She’d rather be training for her black belt or watching TV in her favorite pair of pajamas than be dragged out on a blind date. Sure enough, Ben swaggers into the club, locks onto Ella, and claims he’s not interested—despite the irresistible chemistry between them. So Ella decides two can play at that game. But when her dangerous past comes back to haunt her, Ben will break all the rules of seduction to keep her safe.

 

 

 

 

When a perfect new love is shattered, two hearts will do anything to pick up the pieces. In this sizzling novel from the author of Stone Walls, irresistible heat leads to sensual thrills—and a secret that changes everything.
 

Two years ago, Nick Farley was undercover as a bartender in Chicago. The tough-as-steel FBI agent was working all the angles to build a case against a local crime syndicate, but even his intense focus was no match for the sight of Angela Cavallo’s plump pink lips pulling on her drink. All Nick got was one night—the longest, hottest, sweetest night of his life. It could have been the beginning of something real. But instead, she’d walked away—and Nick had watched her go.
Angela has made some mistakes in her life, but Nick wasn’t one of them. Nor was the baby boy he doesn’t know about. But Angela has been running from a stalker for so long that she’s forgotten how to feel safe. So when Nick suddenly reappears in her life, Angela faces a moment of truth. She wants to trust him and reveal her secrets—her life and that of their son may depend on it—but first she needs to know that Nick can handle her past, and promise her the one thing she most craves: a future together.

 

RELEASE DATE: MAY 24, 2016

 

 

 

Amazon Best Selling Author, A.M. Madden is a wife, a mother, an avid reader of romance novels, and now an author. "It's all about the HEA." A.M. Madden's debut novel was Back-up, the first in The Back-Up Series. In Back-Up, A.M.'s main character Jack Lair caused readers to swoon. They call themselves #LairLovers, and have been faithful supporters to Jack, as well to the rest of his band, Devil's Lair. A.M.'s stories are heartfelt, realistic romances. A.M. believes that true love knows no bounds. In her books, she aspires to create fun, sexy, realistic romance that will stay with you after the last page has been turned. She strives to create characters that the reader can relate to and feel as if they knew them personally. A self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, she loves getting lost in a good book. She also uses every free moment of her time writing, while spending quality time with her three handsome men. She loves the beach, loves to laugh, and loves the idea of love. 

 

 

A.M. Madden, Independent Romance Author. www.ammadden.com Copyright © A.M. Madden, Author, All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Virtual Tour: Review, Excerpt + #Giveaway: Nightwalker by Jacquelyn Frank

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NIGHTWALKER

The World of Nightwalkers #5

Jacquelyn Frank

 

 

Releasing Aug 25th, 2015

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From New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Frank comes the final chapter in the Nightwalkers saga! As the momentous showdown with a powerful demon unfolds, a passionate encounter breaks the ultimate taboo.

Kamen is a Bodywalker, an ancient soul reborn in one human host after another. He’s also a prisoner of his own kind: for it was Kamen who released Apep, the deadly god who threatens the existence of their world. To atone for this grievous error, Kamen accepts an urgent mission: to convince the other nations of the Nightwalkers to set aside their centuries-old conflicts and band together. If he fails, all will be lost. And no tribe presents a greater challenge than the Wraiths, the spectral beings who are feared and despised for their lethal deathtouch.

Kamen makes first contact with a stunning, ghostly pale beauty named Geneviève. Part Wraith and part human, scorned as a half-breed, Viève shares the hunger for redemption—and for connection. Her scintillating touch holds the kiss of death, and yet it makes Kamen feel more alive than ever. Soon his lips are pressed against hers, sending Viève into fits of desire and forging a bond that breaches the divide between them. Now they must unite all the Nightwalkers, from Vampire and Shadowdweller to Djynns, and fast—for Apep is ready for war. 

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REVIEW

Fans of all things paranormal will love this series, and this book was a great finale. I enjoyed seeing these much loved characters come together in a fight to set things right and to finally find peace within their race. I also loved seeing new friendships and relationships formed, as well as the forgiveness of past sins.

And that was pretty much what this book was all about – forgiveness, redemption and acceptance.

Viéve was my favorite character in this story. Her compassion and innocence touched me, and I was really glad that she was there for Kamen, because she was unbiased and didn’t judge him for his past discretions. Not that I blame the others for feeling the way they did.

For everything I loved about this book, I did have a few things that niggled at me. I found some of the dialogue at times to be a little too long-winded and at other times it was stilted. I also found that Kamen and Viéve’s love-making scenes were added as more of a filler, and while they were passionate, the book would have moved along well with the exclusion of at least one of them. Another thing that stood out to me was the flow of POV from one character to another. While done seamlessly, which I applaud the author for, I would have preferred the POV to remain with a single character throughout a chapter or passage, rather than switch at any given time.

All in all, this was an enthralling read.

 

EXCERPT

He had been blind, he thought as he pulled on a pair of slacks. He had discovered that she just wanted power for herself at any cost. Kamen was a very smart man, but he had been very stupid when it came to Odjit. He had spent far too much time engrossed in his books and spells and not enough time living in the real world and seeing truths for what they were.

Kamen pulled on a collared shirt but did not button it. He knew he was likely to be the only one up at this time of the day so he didn’t bother. He looked out of the windows, their polarized glass keeping all hint of sunlight from touching anyone in the house. Bodywalkers were paralyzed by the touch of the sun. All Nightwalkers, in fact, had a weakness to sunlight. Djynns blistered and burned unless they turned to their smoke form, Night Angel skin turned from ebony to albino and their natural abilities became muffled. From what he had read, Mysticals were forced to be in their mystical form rather than their human form. Phoenixes burst into flame at the touch of the sun, leaving only ash from which they would be reborn once darkness fell, and one touch of the sun made Wraiths—who spent the darkness in their ghostly forms that could phase right through solid objects—instantly solid, which was deadly if they happened to be phasing through something at the time.

He had found out about all of these weaknesses during his hours of study. What he did not know was what the weaknesses of the other six Nightwalkers were, the new Nightwalkers they had only just discovered: Demons, Lycanthropes, Mistrals, Vampires, Druids, and Shadowdwellers. He wanted to learn about them, but so far, it had proven next to impossible. Nothing in their written languages made sense to him, and, in fact, without a human translator, there wasn’t even any way of speaking with them. It was as if they weren’t there at all. Besides, Kamen didn’t think they would be all that willing to share information about their weaknesses in any event, never mind sharing it with the likes of him.

Still, Kamen had spent hours in conversation with the Druid called Bella, whose talent was the ability to read any language put before her. Any language, that is, written by humans or the six Nightwalker races she knew of. The Bodywalkers wrote in Egyptian or the language they were reborn into, plus any languages they had studied over their incarnations. Kamen himself could read and write and speak almost any language put in front of him. The product of having his nose constantly in a book whenever he had a body.

But while this Bella could read Egyptian, she could not read anything that referred to any of the six races she was not familiar with. Instead, the pages would simply be filled with the Egyptian alphabet. Something that might seem strange, but not strange enough to have gotten her to question it earlier. And when books in the Demon language were brought to Kamen, all he could see was gibberish that meant absolutely nothing and was completely indecipherable. If Bella wrote something in English about the other Nightwalkers, it just looked like pages filled with the English alphabet.

It was clear that whatever was keeping the two factions apart was determined to do it in such a way that they would never have questioned it. And yet, for all of this misdirection and codification, somehow a prophecy in the Demon language about the twelve Nightwalker nations had survived, giving a hint of what was out there. It had been useless with no context, until Bella, a half-breed Druid, had literally run into Kat, a half-breed Djynn. While they could not see each other nor speak to each other, they could write to each other and use humans as go-betweens when getting messages across.

It made for slow going, this communication process. It had been seven months now since they had first found each other and they were still trying to smooth out ways of communicating and transferring messages back and forth.

He had been working with Bella since he had a larger store of language capability than anyone else in the Portales, New Mexico, compound. If a solution was going to be found, it was going to be found by the two of them. They just had to hope it would happen sooner rather than later. Time was growing short.

For Apep was about to give birth.

In this incarnation, the imp god had taken over Odjit’s body. He had then chosen a father from among the Nightwalker breeds, a powerful Night Angel named Dax, and had raped him in order to impregnate himself. Apep was due to deliver the child into the world any day now.

One god was nearly impossible to fight, but two? And while there was still hope they might stumble upon a text somewhere that would tell them how to get rid of Apep, the god’s child would be something never seen before. There would be no telling how to be rid of it.

Apep had been quiet for the duration of his pregnancy, but after he gave birth, he would focus on destroying them—Kamen was certain of it. He suspected that the Nightwalkers were key to Apep’s undoing, and that the god knew it. So he would destroy them as soon as he was able. Kamen believed that Apep’s pregnancy made him vulnerable, and while they should probably strike before that weakness was gone from him, there were two problems. They didn’t know how to attack him and they no longer knew where he was.

Actually . . . Kamen was fairly certain he had a spell that could locate him, only he hadn’t mentioned it to the others as yet. He felt in his gut that they weren’t ready to face Apep, that they were missing a key element that would allow them to defeat him at last. Bella agreed with him. And anyway, the surest way to defeat him would be if the two Nightwalker factions could coordinate their attacks, and until they figured out why they couldn’t see each other, they wouldn’t be able to enact that kind of coordination effectively.

It was a curse. It had to be a curse.

 

 

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Jacquelyn Frank is the New York Times bestselling author of the Immortal Brothers series (Cursed by Fire, Cursed by Ice, Bound by Sin, and Bound in Darkness), the World of Nightwalkers series (Forbidden, Forever, Forsaken, Forged, and Nightwalker), the Three Worlds series (Seduce Me in Dreams and Seduce Me in Flames), the Nightwalkers series (Adam, Jacob, Gideon, Elijah, Damien, and Noah), the Shadowdwellers novels (Ecstasy, Rapture, and Pleasure), and the Gatherers novels (Hunting Julian and Stealing Katherine). She lives in North Carolina and has been writing romantic fiction ever since she picked up her first teen romance at age thirteen. 

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