Roxy's Reviews: M. Leighton

This personal note is something the author asked that we share with you:

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

This book is not a romantic fairy tale. Yet, it’s the most romantic story I’ve ever told. It’s a journey of pain and loss, of hope and happiness. It’s both achingly tragic and exquisitely beautiful. It’s a love story. A true love story about real love. The kind that sees you through the night and holds you when you cry. The kind that won't give up and never lets go. The kind we all dream about and few find. But it’s real. I promise you, it’s real. I’ve seen this kind of love, and I've seen this kind of heartbreak. I got to see it up close and personal, and quite honestly, I will never be the same. I hope it changes you as much as it changed me.

The Empty Jar

Three months touring Europe.
Romantic. Dazzling. Unforgettable.
The trip of a lifetime.

But some lifetimes are shorter…

We couldn’t have known it would work out this way. No one could. No one could’ve guessed that something so beautiful could be so tragic.

But it is tragic.
Yet so, so beautiful.

That’s what sacrifice is—beauty and tragedy.
It’s pain and suffering for something or someone you love.

And this is the ultimate sacrifice.
One stunning act of true love.

This is our story.
Our true love story.

Get your copy today!

★AMAZON → http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarAMZ

★BARNES & NOBLE → http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarBN

★iBOOKS http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarIB

★KOBO → http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarKobo

★AMAZON UK → http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarAMZUK

ADD TO GOODREADS → http://smarturl.it/TheEmptyJarGR

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Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Cover Reveal: The Empty Jar by M. Leighton

Cover Reveal

The Empty Jar

by

M. Leighton

Releasing May 8, 2016

Today is cover reveal day for M. Leighton's upcoming release entitled The Empty Jar. She wanted to say a little something about the cover before we reveal it and the description, so here she is.

First of all, a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you amazing women who are helping me reveal this cover today. I appreciate everything you do for me, for authors in general and for this community. As a reader, I love you, too:)

Secondly...

OMG OMG OMG! IT'S FINALLY TIME TO REVEAL!

I feel like I've been waiting AGES to share this with you!

This cover... GAH! Y'all, it took me forEVER to get it just right. There was a certain "feel" that I wanted to achieve with it and I wasn't happy until I felt that "feel" jumped right out when I looked at it. I wanted the cover to speak of the book. I wanted it to show the highs and lows, the sweet and the poignant, the depth of it, if you will. And finally...finally, I feel like it does:) You might not realize just how much NOW, but once you read this story, you'll be like, "Yeah. That cover is perfect for this book!"

When I got the paperback proof in the other day, I held it in my hands and I just stared at it. Not only is this story extremely special to me, but this is probably my favorite cover of all my books. Ever. When I look at it, I see so much more than just a picture. I see all the things that I find in life, as well as what I put into the story that is The Empty Jar. It's a blend of happy pinks and brooding blues. It's light and it's dark. There are highs and there are lows. There is morning and there is night. But if you notice the sky on this cover, there are little flickers of brightness in the bodies of the lightning bugs. Life is that way, too. Even in the darkest part of the night, there is a spark of hope. There is beauty. There is the romantic glow of a full moon, the silvery face of your mate, the delicate twinkle of fireflies. It's all there if we look closely enough—that balance of beauty and tragedy.

And love.

Always love.

Below is a little more about the book. It's hard to tell you much without spoiling anything, but I think you can get a feel for it. It's such a special story. So raw, so real. I honestly can't wait for y'all to read it! I hope you love IT and the cover as much as I do:)

If you want to know more about how it came about, you can read my blog post about it here.

But before I get to that...THE COVER!

Description

Add to Goodreads!

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A little tease

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Release Day Blitz + Review: Tough Enough by M. Leighton

You seriously don't want to miss MMA-champion-turned-Hollywood-superstar Rogan. Hotness!

Get Tough Enough on Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | Google Play
Add Tough Enough to your Goodreads TBR

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Bad Boys novels comes the second book in a dark, sexy contemporary trilogy.

He’s a fighter who never loses, but is he tough enough to win her heart?

There was a time when I had everything–a wonderful family, a bright future. Love. But all that was taken away in a single night, torn from me like flesh from bone. Since then, I’ve hidden away in my second-choice job as a makeup artist. But I prefer it that way, actually. I’m comfortable in the shadows, where no one can see my scars.

Kiefer Rogan literally took my breath away the moment I met him. MMA champion-turned-actor, notorious playboy, charming to a fault—he’s everything I vowed to avoid.

But he just wouldn’t stop until I opened up and let him in. Maybe I should’ve tried harder to resist him. Maybe I shouldn’t have fallen in love with him. Because I, of all people, know that everyone has secrets. Scars. And that they’re usually ugly and painful and destructive to the people we love most.

I just never guessed that they could be deadly, too.

Get Tough Enough on Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | Google Play
Add Tough Enough to your Goodreads TBR

Get Strong Enough, the first book in the Tall, Dark, and Dangerous series on Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Kobo | Google Play

Add Tough Enough to your Goodreads TBR

REVIEW

This book was a thrilling rollercoaster ride of love and courage, that saw two very different, but very similar characters battle their demons as they fought to hold onto each other.

There was a lot of mystery behind Katie's past and the reason she had built a fortress around her emotions, and I really wanted to know what had happened because I liked and cared for her so much. She was sweet but with a little bit of feistiness that simmered just under the surface. Rogan didn't quite strike me as the player he was, at first, made out to be, and I found myself instantly liking him, too - and not just because he has a killer smile and smoking hot body. He seemed like a really genuine guy and my heart kinda broke for him for the way he was treated by Kurt.

As the story developed, and as each of their pasts came to light, the more my heart broke for these two amazing people. I was completely shocked by what Katie had been through, and then when she revealed the extra devastation that touched her life at such a horrible time, I was close to bursting into tears. Rogan's life was anything but a bed of roses and he fought so hard to survive, and so hard to protect his brother, that I just wanted to reach into the book and give him a hug. With all their past hurts I was so happy that they found each other and were able to slowly piece together the parts that were broken.

This book tore into my soul and left me feeling with a beautiful sense of hope that no matter how terrible life seems, there may just be something good waiting at the end - and, to give others a chance, they may just surprise you. It was a fantastic read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author M. Leighton is a native of Ohio. She relocated to the warmer climates of the South, where she can be near the water all summer and miss the snow all winter. Possessed of an overactive imagination from early in her childhood, Michelle finally found an acceptable outlet for her fantastical visions: literary fiction.

Having written over a dozen novels, these days Michelle enjoys letting her mind wander to more romantic settings with sexy Southern guys, much like the one she married and the ones you'll find in her latest books. When her thoughts aren't roaming in that direction, she'll be riding horses, swimming in ponds and experiencing life on a ranch, all without leaving the cozy comfort of her office.

Sign up for her newsletter here, and be the first to know about exclusive giveaways, new books, and awesome fan-only perks! And join Michelle in her superfan Facebook group, Laid Back with Leighton, right here!

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Who Wants a Little Extra Christmas Cash?? A Davenport Christmas - M. Leighton's #FREE Cash and Oliva Story!! + #Giveaway

You loved Cash and and Olivia in M. Leighton's Down to You. And now you can love them again, just in time for a little mistletoe action!

M. Leighton's giving everyone the best present ever--a FREE Cash and Olivia holiday story!

A Davenport Christmas will be posted on her blog on December 21, just in time to be read with some eggnog, a sugar cookie, and carols playing in the background.

Sign up to follow her blog via email, and you'll get it right in your inbox, the second it's posted! (...and--psst!--there may be some more Cash and Olivia action on the blog coming in the new year, so definitely make sure to sign up to get blog notifications!)

AND! There's a giveaway, too!

Of course there is, it's the HOLIDAYS!

Enter the Rafflecopter, and you'll be entered to win one of TEN signed copies of Down to You. How's THAT for a little holiday cheer?

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Don't forget to sign up to follow Michelle's blog via email--it's beginning to look like Christmas... A Davenport Christmas... and you definitely don't want to miss it!

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Cover Reveal: Pocketful of Sand by M. Leighton

Coming March 15, 2015 from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author M. Leighton - A story of heartbreak, loss, love, and new beginnings.

Coming March 15, 2015!

Preorder on iBooks | Add it on Goodreads

Sign up for M. Leighton's superfan newsletter to get EXCLUSIVE excerpts, teasers, and Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Google Play ordering information as soon as it's available!

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Release Day Launch: Excerpt + #Gvieaway: All Things Pretty by M. Leighton

We are so stoked to bring you the Release Day Launch for M. Leighton's ALL THINGS PRETTY!

ALL THINGS PRETTY is a Contemporary Adult Romance and the third novel in M. Leighton’s Pretty Series. Sig's book is here!

Amazon Barnes & Noble iBooks ** Kobo

Pretending to be something they’re not, afraid to trust anyone completely, destined to tear each other apart– this is the story of unlikely love and unbearable consequences.

Sig Locke is a cop. He was raised by a cop and all his brothers are cops. He bleeds blue, believes in right and wrong, and sees in black and white, never in shades of gray.

But that was before he met Tommi.

Tommi, with her long legs and bright green eyes, she captured Sig’s interest from the moment he saw her. Even after he discovered who she was–the girlfriend of a drug dealer, the beauty behind a criminal–he still found her utterly irresistible. What Sig doesn’t know, however, is that she has a secret even a cop can’t uncover.

Tommi Lawrence hasn’t had an easy life, and it only got more complicated the day she met Sig. She learned long ago that she can’t trust anyone. Her gut tells her that Sig is no exception, her heart tells her that he is. But that was before she found out his real identity.

Can love be forged in a fire of lies? Or will the truth destroy them both?

EXCERPT

Her lips are still curved when she turns her attention back to me. Something about the moment hits me like a punch to the gut. I think for a second that I could stand here and stare at her, just enjoy her smile and her happiness for hours. Days, maybe. But I can’t. We can’t. So, instead, I brush a clump of mud from the end of her nose. “Have fun?”

“I did. Thank you. This was so good for him.”

“And you.”

“And me,” she concedes.

“You can be the real you around me anytime. I won’t tell a soul.”

“So you prefer this?”

“Oh, hell yeah! I don’t need glamorous. Or proper.”

“I’m not proper.”

“You forget that I heard your…expressiveness that day on the side of the road. And it didn’t consist of ‘darn’ or ‘golly gee’. But I haven’t heard anything like that come out of your mouth since then.”

“Ladies aren’t supposed to talk that way, according to Lance.”

“I don’t want a lady. I want a woman. One who knows her own mind. One who wears what she’s comfortable in, one who says what she’s thinking.” I take a step closer. I can’t help myself. Her scent draws me in. Even covered in mud, she smells like sexy sunshine. “I want the woman who kisses like she’s on fire and makes me feel like I’m the only one who can put her out.”

“Sig,” she begins.

I break in to cut her off. I know her objections. And I know how much I don’t want to hear them. “I’m just being honest. I’m not even touching you.”

Her eyes are glued to mine, a damn near irresistible gravity pulling us together. “It’s not like you can anyway. I mean, we’re in public. With my little brother. What could you possibly touch?”

I reach down and smear my hand in mud. With her eyes locked on mine, I reach between us and flatten my palm on her chest, right over her heart. “This. I’d touch this.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, M. Leighton, is a native of Ohio. She relocated to the warmer climates of the South, where she can be near the water all summer and miss the snow all winter. Possessed of an overactive imagination from early in her childhood, M. Leighton finally found an acceptable outlet for her fantastical visions: literary fiction. Having written over a dozen novels, these days M. Leighton enjoys letting her mind wander to more romantic settings with sexy Southern guys, much like the one she married and the ones you'll find in her latest books. When her thoughts aren't roaming in that direction, she'll be riding horses, swimming in ponds and experiencing life on a ranch, all without leaving the cozy comfort of her office.

A note from M. Leighton: I love coffee and chocolate, even more so when they are combined. I'm convinced that one day they could be the basis for world peace. I also love the color red and am seriously considering dying my hair.

Twitter | Author Goodreads | Website | ALL THINGS PRETTYGoodreads | Facebook

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Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Release Day Launch: Excerpt + #Giveaway: There's Wild, Then There's You by M. Leighton

We are so thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for M. Leighton's

THERE'S WILD, THEN THERE'S YOU!!!

THERE’S WILD, THEN THERE’S YOU is a smoking hot contemporary romance in M. Leighton’s The Wild Ones Series, published by Berkley an imprint of Penguin Group.

He’s someone she can’t trust…

She’s someone he thinks he knows…

Violet Wilson is a wallflower. Shy, serious, and accident-prone, she’s got a bad habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The night she’s forced to pose with her friend might just be the worst time of all—that’s when she meets Jet Blevins. She knows better than to get involved with someone like him, but he touches her in ways she never expected, never wanted before.

On the outside, Jet is a typical rocker, an arrogant lead guitarist who unapologetically lives a wild lifestyle. But on the inside, he’s battling demons and using the stage to escape the troubles of his past and the addictions of his present. Until the night he sees Violet standing at the back of the room. She brings his life into focus. She knows his secrets. She’s the girl he can’t forget, and the one thing he craves more than his addiction.

But can they ever hope to have a future when their very foundation is nothing but lies?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

iBooks

Kobo

EXCERPT

I lick my lips before I raise my eyes to his. Part of me knows I should turn and run, foregoing common courtesies and niceties. Something in me, some deep and rarely used instinct that lives within, knows that once I meet those eyes, I’ll be forever lost. It makes no sense, but I know it like I know my name and my eye color and the way my hair flips out on the ends when it’s rainy outside.

Despite my better judgment, I do it. I look up and up and up until I reach a blue so fathomless I feel like I could dive into and never reach the bottom. Like I could drown and never even know it.

But I can’t do that. I can’t dive in. Not with a guy like this. I’ve seen what someone like this can do to a person—turn that which was once whole and capable into nothing more than scattered pieces of wreckage and ruin.

“I’m Jet,” he offers softly, his eyes never leaving mine.

Jet. Even his name is sexy, which makes me more uncomfortable.

Ridiculous! my rational, level-headed, slightly bitter side scoffs. It pipes up with its less bedazzled perspective, reminding me that guys like this are nothing more than predators. The love ’em and leave ’em type. And he’s obviously worse than most, as evidenced by his attendance here. Apparently, he’s got a real problem.

I give him a tight smile as I straighten away from him. “Violet. Nice to meet you,” I say, hurrying to continue. “Excuse me please.”

I slip on my familiar, no-nonsense persona like a protective shield, like the armor that has kept me from harm all these years. It has never failed me before; I don’t expect it to now.

My head is high, my spine is rigid, and my imperviousness is firmly in place as I move past the dark and damaged stranger. With every step I take, I determine to put him out of my mind and never think of him again.

Until he speaks once more. His words make dents in my breastplate like armor-piercing rounds.

“It’s short,” he calls from a few steps behind me.

Confused, I turn.

Knowing I shouldn’t, still I turn.

“Pardon?”

“My name. It’s short.”

“Short for what?”

I watch as he moves toward me, narrowing the space I only just created. He stops within inches and bends slightly forward, one side of his mouth pulling up into a self-deprecating grin. “Jethro.”

And, just like that, he’s human. And vulnerable. And slightly imperfect. And even more dangerous to me than he was before.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. Leighton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Wild Ones and The Bad Boys romance trilogies. She is a native of Ohio, relocated to the warmer climates of the South, where she lets her mind wander to romantic settings with sexy Southern guys much like the one she married and the ones you'll find in her latest books. When her thoughts aren't roaming in that direction, she'll be riding horses, swimming in ponds and experiencing life on a ranch, all without leaving the cozy comfort of her office. For more about M. Leighton, visit her website at www.MLeightonBooks.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @mleightonbooks.

Author Goodreads / Website / Facebook

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Monday, 13 January 2014

Cover Reveal: All the Pretty Poses by M. Leighton

Hello, Therians!

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for M. Leighton's contemporary romance,

ALL THE PRETTY POSES,

the second book in the Pretty Series.

ALL THE PRETTY POSES will be released January 26, 2014.

He never wanted to be a hero…until she needed him to be.

Strength…

It took Kennedy Moore years to put her life back together after Reese Spencer shattered it. But she did. Now, years later, strong and independent, she is in pursuit of a single dream—to dance with the Altman American Dance Theater. Unfortunately, Kennedy is learning that a girl from nowhere with no money and no contacts might never be able to reach her goal.

That is, until Reese reappears, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Kennedy just can’t refuse. In exchange for working on his yacht for a few short weeks, he’ll get her an audition with the famous dance troupe. All Kennedy has to do is keep her head down, work hard and resist Reese. That sounds easy enough, right?

Weakness…

Reese doesn’t want to make it easy for Kennedy. Seeing her again has started a fire in his blood—an unwelcome one. It took him years to forget about her before, so this time he has a plan. It’s simple: Get Kennedy on his yacht, seduce her, get her out of his system, move on with his life. That sounds easy enough, right?

But the one thing Reese didn’t plan for was Kennedy herself—a girl so strong yet so broken, she makes him want to rescue her, to take care of her. To save her. Even if he has to save her from himself.